This month was action-packed with activities that provided drug education to many citizens of Florida. From state-wide educational summits filled with hundreds of professionals, to educational presentations in classrooms, to annual PTA Teen-focused events.

Consumer Energy Solutions is a Proud Sponsor and Participant in the Tampa Drug Prevention Summit, 5 Years in a Row!

Our friends at Drug Free America, Foundation Inc. and the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance hosted their 5th annual drug prevention summit.  CES has been a proud sponsor of this event all five years.  This 3-day summit presents hundreds of participants with drug prevention training provided by national experts and local leaders.  This included some of our staff who work in this area.

Each year, Our CES for a Drug Free World team attends the summit, learning all about the trends in drug use and abuse. We also provide the effective educational materials from The Foundation for a Drug-Free World to all those who wish to have them.

For three days we met with participants and signed up many of them for the “classroom in a box” Truth About Drugs Educator’s Kit, which is provided free-of-charge to all those who will use it for their classes, church groups, parenting groups, etc.  We met so many good-guys and look forward to future partnering to keep children away from drugs.  What a great group to be part of.  What an incredible event to sponsor for many years to come.

If you would like to find out more about these materials, contact our Director of Community Relations, Lynn Posyton Lposyton@gmail.com and be sure to check out the incredible website: www.drugfreeworld.org

One School at a Time!

Throughout the entire month of February and continuing through March, I have delivered drug education classes to the middle school and high schoolers of Center Academy in Pinellas Park, Florida.

Each week I work with a very bright group of kids and we cover two different drugs of abuse with a question and answer period in between. It has been great coming back week after week, meeting all the different students and enjoying great dialogue with them. The teachers and administrators of the school have really welcomed me and the program with open arms.

Weekly Drug Education Seminars for Everyone!

I was asked to present The Truth about Drugs seminars each Wednesday night and I gladly accepted. So each week I present the truth about a specific drug at the Drug Free World Center in Clearwater: the truth about heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamine, synthetics and every other drug of abuse. We welcome everyone to come and learn, learn, learn!

To top it off, each week I have also had a graduate of the very successful Narconon Suncoast Rehabilitation program speak about their personal experience with the drug I am going over.

These seminars have been such a revelation to the audience and myself included. We have all learned from these seminars and have had great discussions among ourselves to understand the many viewpoints of parents, teens and educators, as well as former drug-users who have been candid with expressing things which we had no understanding about, but a deep desire to know. With real truths in ample openness, we all become more empowered to help our youth stay drug-free.

Be sure to find out about the very effective Narconon Drug Rehabilitation program for anyone that may need this life-saving program: https://www.narconon-suncoast.org/

The World of a Teen

I was asked to participate in a unique event at Steinbrenner High School in Lutz, Florida called The World of a Teen.

The amazing PTA presented a panel of experts in various fields which concern teens and their families. I represented the Foundation for a Drug-Free World to answer questions regarding drugs and drug use. I was among experts in the fields of law, college acceptance, crisis center assistance and even an FBI special agent concerned with predators and cyber safety and crimes.

The audience sent up questions for various speakers to provide their knowledge and advice. I was truly honored to be able to provide helpful information and advice to parents, teachers and teens. I handed out many drug education materials and my participation was greatly appreciated and I was invited back for the next year’s event on the spot.

Being part of this program is a perfect example of our Consumer Energy Solutions corporate social responsibility in action. We really are doing something about it.

Awarding Youth for Taking Drug Education into their own Hands!

Our CEO, Patrick Clouden, formed a non-profit organization called Concerned Businessmen’s Association of Tampa Bay which has the purpose of joining like-minded business owners and workers who wish to assist our communities in the Tampa Bay area.

Our first project was a contest, rewarding the winners who researched and then created and presented an art-based project depicting their knowledge of today’s THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) drugs and products. With the landscape of marijuana normalization in our country changing so quickly and marijuana legalization arriving to our state, along with several instances of school children becoming ill and even dying over THC affecting their minds and bodies, we felt that making children do their own research about THC would be a great way to educate.

We had winners in three age brackets: elementary, middle school and high school.

All three were incredibly talented girls who show-cased various art forms.  From an incredibly researched poster, depicting the harms of THC and how it affects users, to a very deeply impacting poem which shed light on the lies told regarding using THC and the realities of it.  To a “public service announcement” video creation which in a very light but effective way, told the facts of what THC is and what it does to users. This video also went over the hard statistics of how many youths are using it today. This is just CBA’s first project. We hope to gain many members and take on many issues that our members wish to work on in improving our home of Tampa Bay.

To find out more about CBA visit the web page: www.cbatampabay.org
Also check out CBA’s Facebook page to see the winners’ creations! Go to Concerned Businessmen’s Association of Tampa Bay on Facebook @CBAofTampaBay.