 Welcome to this edition of Abledin on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns and achievements of the differently able. I'm always your host, Lauren Syla. I'm Lauren Syla. And on this interesting program, we will focus on new directions, which we will talk about in a minute. But first, recently Abledin on Air was at Good Samaritan Haven in Barrie and Froggy FM was there and there was a broadcast and a fundraiser which Good Samaritan raised funds as well as Green Mountain Transit, which is in Vermont, gave 500, and as you can see from the video here, gave 500 bus passes to people at Good Samaritan Haven to use to go on job interviews and other appointments. But right now, we are also going to talk about the Poor People's Campaign, which has been in at the State House for the last six weeks. And we have video of that. Let's take a look at this. Good afternoon. Come on, you guys can do better than that. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Poor People's Campaign. For the last couple of weeks, I've been here taping through Arkham Media. I'm a journalist and my wife and I, thanks to Arkham Media, host and produce a television program for people with special needs called Abledin on Air, the program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently abled, not disabled. But we don't suffer with disabilities. We're abled people. In 1964, these are facts. In 1964, President Kennedy signed the Act for Mental Retardation and Mental Health Services for people. We don't want to get rid of those services. We need them. Okay? Why is it that people in certain states have to wait for hospital care and not one hour, but they have to remain in the hospital for about 15 or more hours? That's immoral. Why is it that we in the state of Vermont have to pay for co-pays for Medicare and Medicaid? Why is it that people sometimes have to go to other countries, like Israel, for free healthcare? Why can't the United States give us free healthcare? We want free healthcare. Let's say it. We want free healthcare. We want free healthcare. Why is it that Social Security, when you pass away, doesn't give your family enough death benefit and you have to pay thousands of dollars for a funeral? Why? That's immoral. It is immoral. Why is it that disabled veterans are homeless when they come home from helping the United States? Why is it that disabled veterans are also hungry? Why is it that people like my wife, who is a survivor of the World Trade Center, who survived 68 flights? Why is it that people who survived the World Trade Center, who cannot get their compensation because of the fact that the World Trade Center compensation fund said they have to wait for first responders first? That's a shame. And the last several other things here, why is it that President Trump, who is supposed to be our president, still mocks people with disabilities? And why is it that we are, during the national anthem, they say that we are the land of the free and home of the brave? We still live in a slavery state. Let's repeat, we still live in a slavery state. Give us what we need. Thank you. Well, today on Abled and on Air, we are focusing on new directions of Montpelier, which deals with substance abuse, tobacco, and other substances. We would like to welcome the Director of New Directions, and thank you for joining us. Thank you, Larry. Your last name is? Gilbert. And Gilbert of New Directions, which the Substance Abuse Coalition here in Montpelier. Welcome to Abled and on Air. Thank you, Larry. And what are the missions and goals of New Directions? Substance Abuse Coalition. Yeah, Central Vermont New Directions Coalition is a Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. So our mission is really to encourage healthy behavior and decrease substance abuse, especially in Washington County. When you say decrease substance abuse, what exactly does that mean? Well, the key word is prevention. We really want to stop something before it starts. So we want to decrease the number of kids who are starting to try cigarettes. We want to decrease the number of smokers and where it's causing harm to their health. We want to lower the number of people abusing prescription drugs, and we want to limit underage drinking of alcohol. Okay. When you're dealing with tobacco, okay, tobacco cessation, patches, the chewing tobacco and that kind of thing, because now we know that it's a federal mandate to anyone that rents an apartment in HUD subsidized housing, that there's going to be no smoking as of July 30th or 31st. Explain what you've been doing in terms of those applications. Right. So that is a big change. And several years ago, it was optional. So some public housing units started to go smoke-free or tobacco-free over the years, and now you're right. It is a requirement. So New Directions has funding, some grant funding, through the Vermont Department of Health to really assist with this initiative. So the Department of Health and 802 quits has put out a smoke-free housing toolkit, which really helps. It's a whole booklet. It is. And what it has in there are the reasons why, you know, because of to limit fires and burns and decrease the cost of having to redo an apartment from all the problems, and especially the secondhand smoke. What do you mean redo an apartment from all the problems? Explain some of that. Right. So secondhand smoke, which, you know, comes off of the lit end of a cigarette, gets into the air. And thirdhand smoke actually settles in the walls, on the floor, in the linoleum, in the drapes. So all of those things add toxic layers to inside of an apartment. There could be sticky nicotine residue. So when an apartment is turned over, there has to be a lot of repainting and cleaning and sanding or repurchasing new carpeting in order to make that happen, which is much more expensive than if there was a non-smoker there. We also know that there's no safe level of secondhand smoke, and it gets into the HVAC system. And so people in all the apartments can are breathing that same air and sometimes those toxins that come with secondhand smoke. Did you want to ask a question? Mm-hmm. Did you want to ask a question? Yeah, how does, um, the reaction is going to, going to stop people from smoking and telling them they're going to have a... Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So we do want to promote cessation. And so it's not just about the smoker, it's really just about the smoke. And we really want to help people with this challenge. Well, obviously you can't stop someone from completing. Can you stop someone, can new directors stop someone from completing smoking? Well, we partner with Central Vermont Hospital that has a program called 802 quits. Mm-hmm. And 802 quits provides, when you sign up for this, you can get phone support or online or you can attend a group meeting. And so there can even be a meeting at every of the public housing areas. And you can get free patches, gum, lozenges, those are all aids in assisting people to stop smoking. And sometimes it doesn't take just once or twice. It may take several times. And so I just wanted to encourage people who tried to smoke and said, oh, I started again to try again, because every try counts. And it is very difficult to break the habit. In terms of some of the other situations, like, okay, you said that secondhand smoke gets on carpet and HUD or any apartment dwelling has to pay extra money. I've also heard that it's gotten into appliances, like stoves, refrigerators, lighting. Can you explain some of that? Like, how expensive can it really get for a secondhand smoke to get into an apartment? You're right, Larry, to replace appliances or lighting is very, very costly. So it could cost thousands and thousands of dollars. And a lot of the housing authorities really want to be able to keep the prices down. People lose their security deposit because of this problem. They do. They do. And so that's why we're trying to, I mean, now that we know, now that the Surgeon General has said there's no safe level of secondhand smoke and we see the evidence of fires and illnesses and having to redo the apartments, it's time to make a move that will really be more healthy for all the residents in the long run. Okay, let's talk about tobacco companies for a minute. Okay. In terms of Philip Morris and others, some years back there was a huge PSA, a public service announcement situation, because these companies have gotten sued for lying to consumers in terms of smoke. Oh, it's wonderful. It's great. That type of thing. It costs a lot of money for a carton of cigarettes these days. Half your rent. Explain that situation and how your nonprofit basically helps with smoking cessation in terms of that whole thing. Why did they lie to consumers? Big tobacco is very, very powerful and they continue, even though it's been going on for years and years, they continue to tell lies or not tell the whole truth about a lot of the products and about the harmful effects of smoking and the secondhand smoke. They've really skirted the issues in a lot of ways and we're concerned about that. Right now, there are a lot of electronic cigarettes and vape pens and jewels and rubies which are vaping devices which do not fall under the same legislation as regular cigarettes. We really need to get more legislation around those so that they are taxed heavily. There are a lot of flavors in tobaccos now. There are almost 7,000 different flavors of different tobacco products and nicotine liquid and one of the reasons big tobacco is really putting a lot of flavors into these products and not telling the whole truth is because so many of their customers are dying off. So what do they need to do? They need to make more customers and they know that they can target kids if they put signs on doors that are at eye level, is by level. Joe Camel stickers used to be about three feet off the ground when you walked into a convenience store. Now luckily, there are a lot more rules about what kind of signage there can be but when I was growing up there were jingles on the radio and TV all the time. There were billboards, there were ads and now they're not allowed to do that but what we're really hoping is that the cigarettes will be taxed even more that they'll raise the age of purchase to 21. We call that tobacco 21 so that we can keep people from starting and they won't be saddled with this habit. It's expensive. It's expensive. The other products and you know it's first amendment speech so we can mention like the other products like Skull which is the chewing tobacco. Cartons and cigarettes cost a lot of money. $100 to $200 of a carton depending on the brand. But this stuff causes mouth cancer. We have family members that died of cancer. Oh another thing I want to talk about, birth defects. How does that, I mean there's another agency March of Dines that deals with birth defects. How does smoking really increase birth defects? Yeah we're really really trying to help more people be aware of the harms and have the skills to quit smoking and really take action and you know the harms for women who are pregnant whether they're smoking tobacco or tobacco products like vaping or chew or even marijuana. It's all harmful to the developing fetus. If it's harmful to developing fetus then why are they making marijuana legal? That's a good question you know. We know that there really needs to be a lot more prevention education and public awareness about the harms of tobacco about marijuana. It's not for everybody certainly not for kids and teens whether brains are still developing. And especially I'm originally from the Bronx okay. My wife's originally from Brooklyn. We're talking about 1970s 1980s here. Crack, crack pipes, crack smoke all of that stuff is just you know there's something in the 70s the Bronx is burning right. People were smoking crack and doing drugs and all that other stuff. You're talking about so much harm to a person's body. Now vaping, how does that come into play? Why is that considered I mean not really smoke in terms of like versus tobacco smoke in an apartment building. Right. Why is that considered safe versus? Well actually the the vaping is not safe either. There are a lot of things we don't yet know about it but what we do know are a number of the chemicals that are in vape pens or vaping devices are also in combustible like cigarettes, tobaccos and so you know these are things like formaldehyde or you know dry cleaning fluid. Lots of things that are harmful. Wide out. I took culinary classes and we had to bring a sharpie pen to glass so to underline stuff. So sharpie pens and those vapors are harmful to people. Right there's toxicity in that and. Lead paint. Well you know lead paint is a good point because. Am I making a wrong assumption here? No but a lot of people say well you know why why does our housing have to be smoke free? It's because we know so much more now than we used to know. For instance lead paint. We don't use lead paint anymore that's not allowed in any of your housing because we know how toxic that can be and so now that we know so much more about the chemicals. They don't even have lead pencils too much anymore. I remember when I was a kid if I got nervous I would chew a pencil but you know they don't do that anymore. They don't. Right and so the vaping the electronic cigarettes is still a form of a tobacco substitute. Electronic cigarettes and those are not safe either. Do they plug them into the wall and smoke? Well they plug them into their computer to recharge them. It has a battery on it and then they can. It's a battery. It's an actual battery you plug into your computer. That will heat the coil. Yeah yeah it doesn't have to be plugged in in order to vape so it's very concealable it could just be in your hand. It doesn't have that same odor as a lot of regular cigarettes. Okay I'm plugging in a cigarette now. But there's lots of flavors involved in those which are very toxic and there's been a lot of nicotine poisonings especially among children and youth from these little bottles that come of the liquid and so there are laws now that they have to be marked with how much nicotine is in them and they have to have a child proof cap. However the FDA is not regulating all of those chemicals the same way they do with other things and in fact some of the additives in vaping have been approved for ingestion like those flavors might be okay if it was in candy but they were never intended to be heated and inhaled. Candy cigarettes I remember those. Oh right yep yep and as a matter of fact back in the early 60s 70s Winston Cigarettes we might show a piece of that Winston Cigarettes and the Flintstones there was an old commercial with the Flintstones Winston Cigarettes you know taste great it's the same thing like bush beer I know this is you know about smoking and other harmful but Flintstones did a bush beer commercial well you're you're playing right into children you are you are that's really true and the more that there are bright colors and fancy flavors and so actually we have several groups at a number of schools that are funded to be part of the counterbalance campaign and counterbalance is they're going to counter the advertising that big tobacco is putting out there of you know having flavors in lots of different chew and tobacco and really just to lure kids because what we know now from surveys is that kids who would not would not normally have smoked cigarettes do try some of these products only because of the flavors like bubblegum or or even the idea of a flavor like fancy unicorn I mean what does that taste like but people think oh I'm gonna get I'm gonna get that flavor or ice cream yes yeah cotton candy ice cream or something yeah crème brûlée yeah interesting but disgusting yeah um no crème brûlée is a good food but not in a cigarette you know even though you use a blow torch to to cook it right at the end yeah I think so yeah but anyway um let's get to the other programs that you guys have trash tramps for example oh okay that let's um what exactly is trash trash tramps and I noticed you have a oh yeah I brought a couple things to show you that's right so we did a survey with some student interns a few summers ago all around Montpelier to pedestrian's and we surveyed um uh store owners to see if they if smoking was bothersome at their stores or on the streets and would they like to have a smoke-free zone well yes cigarette smoke was bothersome people were concerned about where people would go and smoke but the number one thing was the cigarette butts were a real problem in Montpelier so Central Vermont New Directions Coalition partnered because Montpelier doesn't really have the sanitation department and it gets all nasty with garbage and other stuff well yeah so a lot of the trash does get picked up but who wants to pick up all the cigarette butts so here's where the trash tramps come in and they're volunteers from the Montpelier area senior activity center and so we partnered with them and with Montpelier alive and with Central Vermont Solid Waste District to purchase these sidewalk butlers now these are made by a man in Portland Maine and they have these in Maine and now they have them in a lot of other cities so we started with six and then we were able to get 10 more and some kids in Barrie even purchased 10 to put up in downtown Barrie so we have our logos on here we want to let people know that we're recycling the cigarette butts new directions they cost about $99 but that doesn't include emptying so who's going to empty these so the trash tramps get together every Tuesday afternoon from two o'clock to three o'clock and anyone can join they meet at the cedar center and they go around and they pick up trash on the streets with tongs and they they have a master key that unlocks these and empties the cigarette butts which all get recycled but what we're finding is that they're picking up about 2,000 cigarette butts every Tuesday sometimes more than that even with these so what we really need to do is promote the use of these either through the tourist center or smokers on the street please don't throw it on the ground or in the tree grates or down the sewer that goes right to the river there's no filter in there put put them right in the sidewalk butler and you'll see these on signs around you know signposts around state street main street and we put them wherever we found big piles of cigarette butts in the past but we're ready to install some more so you can purchase those also our group can purchase those to combat smoking yes we really want to have cigarette receptacles we want to try to get people out of the habit of just throwing them on the ground you know people don't throw their coffee cup down or their their empty bag from their chips but for some reason uh cigarette butts get thrown on the ground or in the river or something and we really want to try to change that culture okay um now how long has new direction has been around well since 1998 um i'll tell you that there was uh very unfortunate tragic alcohol related car crash two Montpelier high school students were killed in east Montpelier coming home from a party in adamant that was hosted by two necky students so you can see that there were four or more communities um involved in this uh it was an underage drinking party and when these uh two boys died a lot of the people in the community came together and said we cannot let this happen again so is this similar well is this group is your group similar to because there's been other groups like mothers against drug driving and uh yeah students against drug driving so is it we we partner with those other organizations but it's not just on underage drinking anymore because what we see is there are so many substances and youth are very vulnerable drugs yeah tobacco uh vaping marijuana underage drinking binge drinking which is drinking four or five drinks at a time you know within a two hour period in a fat house or hazing when they do all that stuff yeah and even other underage parties kids drink too much at one time and they don't understand the harmful effects going on in their body yeah and we're very concerned about prescription drugs now also and i'd like to tell you about that yeah so how exactly does your organization help with that well one of the things that we found Larry and Arlene is that most of the people who were using prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them we're not stealing them example what do you mean by the difference between prescription and unprescribed okay so prescription drugs like painkillers something very strong something that's not just in over the counter oxy cotton yes absolutely years per cassette has been has been off the market because of situations people would eat them like candy too much misuse and not enough warning on that so in vermont um we have a prescription monitoring system so it's not easy for people to get you know too many too many pills from a lot of different pharmacies and um doctors are prescribing very low doses or offering alternatives maybe going to a chiropractor or trying some other alternative method of acupuncture or something else to manage pain but what we do know is that there's still a lot of misuse because people are getting them from families and friends and when we think about crime sometimes it's because people have broken into someone's home or their car to get prescription drugs so our one main issue right now in working with the health department is to get prescription drugs out of people's homes so if you had a shoulder injury or your kid had their wisdom teeth taken out and you still have those drugs don't keep them around for if you might need them someday we're really encouraging people to get rid of them and a number of ways to do that we call them vermont's most dangerous leftovers and so we really want to promote that's why police are getting involved and they have commercials on tv or psas um the my premier police department is hosting a drug take-back day or something like that and you bring your unused medication to them or any drop off centers and they'll take your medication exactly what do they do with that well i'm glad you've heard about that the garbage how do they no they they get picked up so this is what one of the drop boxes look like and here in washington county um that's on facebook or is it on yes yeah um here in washington county we now have a drop box in every police station and at the washington county sheriff's office so you can walk right into the police station and um get rid of your old drugs if you can't do that you want to do a little spring cleaning twice a year there's a drug take-back day like you said that happened in april april and every october and we publicized this because the law enforcement locally um they monitor different areas and people can come and drop off all their drugs and then they get picked up by the national guard and they're taken to be incinerated now if neither of those work we certainly don't want anybody flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the compost what happens when you do that well it goes into the water supply and um you know there can be levels of drugs uh in the water and we don't want that so another option that we have are we now have mailers and we're putting up these displays at a number of places around town um so you can mail in your unused medication so if it's not convenient for you to get to the police station or wait till take-back day you can go to the library or your doctor's office and pick up one of these envelopes it's postage paid all you have to do is put your you know cross off your name on the prescription bottle stick it right in seal it up and take it to the post office or put it in the mailbox and that will get no no charge to you but we're just really making every effort to get all drugs out of people's homes right now so they're not just sitting around um for to fall into the wrong hands any more any questions you want to ask yeah um what uh what are the new things that new directions are doing um in terms of how can I say um you know new things that are happening or or in the future what is it holding for new directions in the future well we're really focused on prevention and we really want to help people understand that um a lot of substance abuse uh disorders can be prevented you know there's a lot of focus on treatment and recovery which are both so important but we're trying to back it up and you know stop it before it even starts one of the things that we find is really really important is to uh teach a parenting class called guiding good choices and this is a course can you hold that a little bit more sure yeah so this is a workbook that the parents get and we pull parents together for um two hours to meet for five weeks one of the weeks they bring their kids with them but it's really focused on how to have family meetings think about what your values are in the family um learn about why marijuana for instance is very harmful to kids so the parents can make decisions and then communicate those decisions and guidelines family rules to their kids on a regular basis and have conversations before it's too late and it's really important to start talking to kids when they're you know 10 years old even because then they're more receptive to understanding the harms and the um health problems down the road yeah start young yeah and continue through middle school and high school and even college yeah we understand that new directions is grant funded yes uh and you told me before the show began that you guys were not funded for um to help people to get off heroin and some other powerful drugs why is that um i thought that drug prevention was a whole thing you're right drug prevention does cover all of the substances and one of the things that we know is some substances actually lead to other things that's how is that well we don't even want kids starting to feel uh high or change their brain from nicotine in something that people think is harmless like a a vape pen or you know what they call a jewel now or even a cigarette but you know it many times using one substance people are more likely to then use another substance and you know when they can't have prescription drugs they they might move on to heroin now there we do carry Narcan you know in case there is Narcan is what Narcan is a naloxone which will reverse the effects of you know heroin overdose for instance and um we're really trying to promote that in the state so if there are family members and loved ones of people who are addicted and are using heroin that all the family members make sure that they do have Narcan in their home so that they can save a life if there is an unfortunate overdose yep no uh what are the misconceptions that people have around cigarette smoking and drugs that aren't necessarily and because it's not good for you yeah right um you know it can cause in this program deals with we we deal with special needs and we deal with families and um because you can get birth defects from it you can get other situations from it so what are the misconceptions that I know that's a long-winded question but yeah well I think first of all there's um there's a low perception of harm there are a lot of oh it's not gonna harm you and adults who think you know parents might say well I smoked weed I smoked pot when I was younger or I still like to smoke it it's okay but what we know is the THC the active psychoactive ingredient what is THC is there for yeah tetrahydrochloride yeah tetrahydrochloride okay um um I think uh the THC level in um marijuana used to be much lower than it is now I'm talking about used to be three or five percent and now some of the products have 80 or 95 percent and that's way too much for a lot of people's brains and it really is way too much for for kids it's almost the same thing similar well something similar the driver's manual any driver's manual would say what has more alcohol a beer a shot of a shot of whiskey or something else it just it depends but it all can cause the same harm when you get behind a wheel it can and the other factor that plays into that is if people have a family history of mental illness or dependence on alcohol or other drugs those kids or even those grandkids can be much more vulnerable and susceptible to uh having a problem dependence or addiction and kids need to know that all people need to know what their family history is just the way you know a doctor would say well do you have diabetes in your family or heart disease in your family everybody needs to know if there is a problem with substance of dependence or mental illness um and then they can make better choices you know I think when there's more knowledge then people are better informed to be able to say that's not good for me or I can have one or I can't do that right now or you know uh you know my family is allergic to that pretty much you know it just doesn't work for them and so I think getting back to you know your question the perception of harm some some people think oh what has more yeah it's all it all does the same harm especially when you get behind a wheel if if marijuana smoke you get behind a wheel is I mean not marijuana smoke uh alcohol yes you get behind a wheel you're gonna kill somebody well alcohol is very dangerous you know don't drink and drive don't drive and drink you know but um the marijuana impairment is a really big deal and that's why one of the reasons that New Directions was promoting let's wait until we have this figured out or what we were watching Colorado and Washington state who had legalized before us how are you gonna handle you know the the driving problems with impairment and it is a big problem because there's something called a lot of people don't realize vehicular homicide you get behind the wheel yeah yeah yeah you kill somebody and it's compounded if someone uses marijuana and they have a drink or they have a pill in their system all of those things compounded really um uh change their level of impairment and we're worried about that yep yeah so um we would like to thank you for joining us on on this informing episode of Ableton on air before we go how can people we're gonna put it on the bottom of the screen how can people read you okay so um you can see we're at www.cvndc.org and that stands for central Vermont new directions coalition we have a website we have a facebook page and we're going to um be at city hall um meeting with the city council on uh June 27th to talk about and we'll be there as well oh good we're going to propose we've got a petition going around right now and we have over 1500 signatures for people who are open to smoke-free zones maybe parts of the sidewalk in downtown Montpelier because there's so many people suffering from disabilities of you know lung problems and um and breathing problems and so to eliminate second hand smoke in our downtown public area would be helpful last thing before we end yeah last thing before we end restaurants yeah okay we didn't get really get into that but yeah restaurants and other public places yes um smoking non-smoking why did they start the trend of a smoke-free restaurant or casino or a smoke-free place well you know when surveyed most people would prefer to be in a smoke-free environment um because they they appreciate breathing clean air sometimes because if they're not around smoke which triggers them to have a cigarette it helps them cut down or quit and um then there and it saves money too and it saves money and there was a ruling you know that uh no there's no safe level of second hand smoke even indoors so now we have the clean indoor air act but we also you know in Vermont especially in Montpelier all of our parks are smoke-free the parklets that we have downtown are smoke-free and even the state house lawn which is going to make a big difference this July 3rd when people are at the parade and watching the fireworks that um they won't be bothered by people smoking around them or it would be okay to say on the state house lawn did you know there's no smoking on the state house lawn so appreciate you not smoking around my family yeah well we would like to thank you for joining us on this edition um that puts an end to this edition of Able Dead on Air I'm Lauren Seiler I'm Lauren Seiler see you next time