$1.2 Million available for community-based drug prevention coalitions

Source: SAMHSA News Release, 2/15/08
$1.2 MILLION AVAILABLE FOR COMMUNITY-BASED DRUG PREVENTION COALITIONS DFC MENTORING GRANTS TO FUND 15 DRUG-FREE COMMUNITIES (Washington, D.C.) – Today, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced the availability of $1.2 million for new Drug-Free Communities Support Mentoring Program (DFC Mentoring) grants. An estimated 15 new Mentoring grants will be awarded (averaging $75,000 per grant, per year) to drug and alcohol prevention community coalitions representing a cross-section of rural, urban, suburban, and tribal communities.

View the whole press release here.
View the grant ap and requirements here.

NLM announces the release of the NLM Drug Information Portal

Source: NLM Website

The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the release of the NLM Drug Information Portal. The site is at http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov. The NLM Drug Information Portal gives the public, healthcare professionals, and researchers a gateway to current, accurate and understandable drug information from the National Library of Medicine and other key government agencies.

More than 12,000 drug records are available for searching. The search interface is straightforward, requiring only a drug name as a search term, and successful searching is enhanced by the assistance of a spellchecker. Information buttons and balloon pop-ups guide the user by providing helpful hints or a description of the resource and links to the source website. Links to the following resources contribute to the search results: MedlinePlus®, AIDSinfo®, Medline/PubMed®, LactMed, HSDB®, Dietary Supplements Labels Database, TOXLINE®, DailyMed®, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubChem, NIAID Anti-HIV/OI Database, ChemIDplus®, Drugs@FDA, DEA, and USA.gov .

The Drug Information Portal offers a varied selection of resources and focused topics in medicine and drug-related information, with links to individual resources with potential drug information and summaries tailored to various audiences. General drug categories from MeSH are also included in the Drug Portal records.

Bush’s 2009 Budget Cuts $198 Million from SAMHSA

Source: Jointogether.com News Feature, 2/8/2008
Drug-prevention advocates and others are raising the alarm over President Bush’s FY2009 budget plan, which slashed $198 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and calls for elimination of the Recovery Community Support Programs and the STOP Underage Drinking program.

The budget also calls for spending $10 million less on the Drug Free Communities program, a major funding source for many community anti-drug coalitions. “The majority of programs that our field advocates for were recommended for severe cuts,” noted Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America in an action alert calling for supporters to contact lawmakers to oppose the cuts. “Only a very small handful of programs were recommended for increases.

Overall, the budget plans calls for increasing defense spending by at least $32 billion, foreign operations by $5.4 billion, and law enforcement and prosecution efforts by $497 million. “The budget invests substantial and needed resources to maintain high levels of military readiness and to continue the transformation of our military to meet the new threats of the 21st Century,” Bush said in his budget message to Congress.

Read the rest of the News Feature.