The Homewood Star Volume 4 | Issue 7 | October 2014
Dog heaven
neighborly news & entertainment for Homewood
Spreading the word
A new dog park has opened at Red Mountain Park. Find the details inside.
Community page A9
Fall Home Guide
Event to help share facts about teen marijuana use By MADOLINE MARKHAM
Fall is the perfect time for do-it-yourself projects and home improvements. Inside we provide ideas and tips in our Home and Garden section.
Data has shown that Homewood students’ marijuana use is above the national average, and now the community is seeking to change that. One marker of this statistic is the 2013 Pride Survey, an anonymous survey of middle and high school students that has been considered the official measure of American adolescent drug use since 1998. In the study, 27.9 percent of Homewood High School seniors reported having used marijuana, as compared to 22.2
percent nationally. For Homewood sophomores, 17 percent reported using it, which was 0.8 percent above the national average. There is also increasing cause for concern about marijuana use due to the increase of its potency, according to Carissa Anthony, prevention and development coordinator for Homewood City Schools. In 2012, concentrations of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that makes users high, averaged close to 15 percent, compared to around 4 percent in the 1980s, according to the National Institute on
See page A16
Drug Abuse. Knowing these things, Anthony is spearheading plans for a forum on marijuana use in teens to be held Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Homewood High School. The free event is hosted by the Safe & Healthy Homewood Coalition in conjunction with Bradford Health Services and the Addiction Prevention Coalition. That evening’s speaker, Dr. Kevin A. Sabet, who has more than 18 years of experience
See MARIJUANA | page A14
Bewitched
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Witches of Homewood take to the streets on bikes By MADOLINE MARKHAM
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Homewood High School Peer Helpers Sarah Tyndall, Maggie Truit, Catherine Quisenberry and Joy Korley practice a skit to teach elementary students to stay drug-free during Red Ribbon Week. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Thee Homewood Witches Ride will take place in memory of organizer Janie Meyer’s mom, who organized a similar event in Florida. Photo courtesy of Beth Hontzas.
Bikes will become brooms on Halloween eve. Decked out in colorful striped leggings and black brimmed hats of all shapes and sizes, hundreds of witches will cruise through Homewood’s streets, cackling with joy and tossing candy to those they pass. Just as the Homewood Witches Ride’s founder would have liked, the procession has one primary aim — fun.
This is the second year in a row Janie Ford Mayer has organized the ride in memory of her mom, Paula Stringfellow Ford, who planned an annual Witches of South Walton event in Florida until she passed away from lung cancer in early 2013. “She lived to dress up and do anything fun like that,” Mayer said. “She would always want us to do something fun and keep her happy spirit going.”
See WITCHES | page A15