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International Women's Day, celebrated annually on March 8, is a global day recognizing the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. At Next Step, we are committed to raising awareness about women's equality and promoting a culture of diversity and inclusiveness of all kinds. To...
By Rebecca Smith Next Step counselor Brittney Dougan, LMSW, recalls a 7th-grade student she felt has made some of the most progress since Brittney started with Next Step in September 2020. “She was really angry, ready to fight people at the drop of a hat,” Brittney said. “When...
Most teens don’t drink regularly. Why do so many East Texans believe the myth that they do? One of the questions we ask students during alcohol presentations is “What percentage of teens do you think drink regularly?” More often than not, students think that most of their...
It’s day four of the National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week and today’s topic is marijuana. In the US, marijuana is defined as any cannabis plant that has greater than 0.3% THC. THC is the naturally occurring psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant. THC...
Today is Day 2 of National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week. Today let’s talk about vaping and its potential complications with the COVID-19 pandemic. Top priority for everyone right now is not only preventing the spread of the coronavirus to other people but keeping ourselves and...
As part of National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week, we’d like to remind parents about the importance of talking to their children and teens about underage drinking. You may be thinking, “We’re in the middle of a global pandemic, why would I worry about talking to...
E-cigarette companies were just spreading their wings a decade ago but have recently grown at a furious pace. According to the BBC, the global market for vaping has increased 280% from 2014 to 2019. This rapid growth has left US lawmakers and regulators lagging behind...
If ever there was a situation fitting of comparison to “Pandora’s box,” it’s where the country is with e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes, or vapes, were originally created to be a device that could still deliver the nicotine to someone with a smoking addiction, without all the known carcinogens...
By Nathan Grounds In our previous blog post, we gave a cursory summary of the War on Drugs and revealed its failure to curb the American drug epidemic. In this post we’ll discuss the modern approach to addiction, which holds great potential in actually helping people...
By Nathan Grounds I was 7 years old when Toy Story hit theaters. Although I was old enough to know better, the portrayal of walking, talking toys reinvigorated my imagination. I soon found myself speaking to my toys and keeping them on clean, open shelves (rather...