One Million Nonviolent Offenders Incarcerated in America
According to a new study just released by the Justice Policy Institute, the number of people in prisons in the United States for non-violent crimes increased to over one million for the first time last year. The increase, the report showed, was driven by stricter sentences for drug crimes, among them mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws.

Federal Funding Cuts to Drug Free Schools Program
Last year's Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Act for fiscal year (FY) 1999 moved $90 million from the formula portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program to fund a new national discretionary school violence initiative. This left a balance of only $381 million for the state grant portion of the SDFSC program for FY 1999. This will result in severe funding cuts to drug prevention and intervention programs around the nation.

Join Together is spearheading an effort to restore the SDFSC program to full funding. Find out how you can help at the Join together site.

New TIPS Reports Issued
To help improve the early identification and treatment of adolescent substance abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) issued two new reports in its Treatment Improvement Protocol Series (TIPS). The TIPS reports are best practice guidelines developed by panels of well-known professionals. All of the TIPS reports are available online or can be ordered through the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information.

TIP 31: Screening and Assessing Adolescents for Substance Use Disorders details the warning signs of substance use disorders among teens. It also details when to screen for substance use, when to move forward into a professional assessment of the adolescent, and how to involve the family and other close associates.

TIP 32: Treatment of Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders, emphasizes the critical differences between treatment for adults and treatment for adolescents. The TIP discusses treatment options for adolescents and stresses that "the treatment process must address the nuances of each adolescent’s experience, including cognitive, emotional, physical, social and moral development" as well as "gender, ethnicity, disability status, stage of readiness to change, and cultural background."

Project CORK
Project CORK has a new home. Project CORK has joined the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs of Department of Health, the State of Vermont. Old users will want to note and bookmark the new URL. For new users, Project CORK has over 100 subject bibliographies, a wide range of resource materials, copies of its quarterly current awareness newsletters, as well as the ability to search CORK an on-line bibiographic database. The CORK database which includes over 36,000 items on substance abuse, indexed by 400 terms.

Alcoholism Search Engine
The Alcoholism Index uses a Yahoo-style directory of editor-picked sites and resources, providing visitors with a large and growing index of sites on alcoholism, anonymity, depression, domestic abuse, suicide, student issues, support groups, and more.

Conference Announcements
Drug Abuse and AIDS: Intertwined Epidemics, July 15, 1999: Satellite Symposium: "Drug Abuse and AIDS: Intertwined Epidemics", Westin Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), will characterize unique problems associated with drug abuse and HIV/AIDS, and discuss NIH research grant opportunities. Contact: Kathleen Janson, (301) 468-6008, x432.

Substance-Abusing Adolescents with Co-Occurring Disorders
May 3-4, 1999
Palmer House Hilton, Chicago.
Peg Rider-Hankins, Development Director
Mayor's Office of Substance Abuse Policy
DePaul Center, Room 320
333 South State Street
Chicago, IL 60604
312-747-2614

New Links
Recovered! Big Book Discussion Group A new mailing list.
Eating Addictions Anonymous