Drumroll, please! After more than 700 votes, a winner has been chosen in our 2 Much/2 Soon student production competition.

This year’s grand prize winning team is Team Rugrats from Austin East High School with “It’s A Choice.”

The team members were Saysha Cheatham, Mariah Ragland and Daryl Sligh. Way to go, Team Rugrats!

“This is the best feeling ever,” Cheatham, Sligh and Ragland said about taking the top spot. “We feel accomplished and proud to represent Austin East High School. We hope our commercial will inspire more teens to make better choices.”

Several other teams received high marks from our viewers. These top teams include:

2nd Place: The Four Ls, “A Matter of Time” (Austin East High School)

3rd Place: Team L.S.J.D., “To Uncle Jack” (Austin East High School)

4th Place: Team Beer Busters, “Beer Pong Is Wrong” (Grace Christian Academy)

5th Place: Reeces Peaces Pictures, “Busted” (Fulton High School)

Congratulations to these great teams! Prizes for the students and their teacher sponsor will be awarded in the coming days.

Thank you to all the students that contributed to this contest. We sincerely appreciate all of your hard work and creativity. You can view all student entries at our 2 Much/2 Soon page. We hope to see new videos from these students next year!

With prom and graduation season upon us, MDC is involving local parents in prevention. On Tuesday, WBIR Channel 10 is hosting an underage drinking town hall meeting titled “Too Much, Too Soon” at 7 PM in The Square Room. This event is an opportunity for local families to learn more about the health and safety risks of teen drinking and ask their most pressing questions to local experts.

At-home viewers can interact and ask questions on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #10NewsTownHall. After the meeting, please take this  short, 5 minute survey to help us evaluate our event.

Parents: Want to talk with your child about alcohol but are unsure where to start? Check out our Too Much, Too Soon page for practical tips to reduce risks and discover ways you can get involved in prevention.

Excessive drinking can have serious consequences, especially if you’re under 21. For teens, even a little alcohol can be too much, too soon. Knox County students have teamed up to let you know that underage drinking is unhealthy, illegal and unsafe. Nine student teams are competing to see who can deliver the most creative video message in the Metropolitan Drug Commission’s 2 Much/2 Soon video competition. The video clips highlight the real life risks of teen drinking.

We need you to help us choose a winner! Click the banner below to view entries from Grace Christian Academy, Austin-East High School and Fulton High School. You can vote for your favorite by clicking the link beneath each video. Remember, only one vote per person! Once your have cast your ballet, share the link with family and friends through email or on Facebook and Twitter.

Voting ends on Friday, April 13 at 5 PM. Check back on April 20 when we announce the winners. The first place team will win an iPad for their classroom, iTunes giftcards and have their video placed on local television. Good luck to these great teams!

MDC is inviting students from across Knox County to produce a 15 or 30 second Public Service Announcement (PSA) for our second student  production competition, “2 Much/2 Soon!”

The contest is designed to educate teens about the health and safety risks of underage drinking.  The grand prize winner will receive a $100 iTunes gift card for each team member and an iPad for their teacher sponsor for classroom use. In addition, the winning entry will be broadcast in regular rotation on TV this summer.

The deadline for entry forms has been extended to Friday, February 24. Final PSAs entries will be due March 9. All interested student groups are encouraged to download the full information packet and entry forms and submit by the extended deadline dates.

For more information, contact Heather Sutton.

On behalf of the Metropolitan Drug Commission’s board of directors, I would like to commend Governor Haslam on the newly-unveiled Public Safety Action Plan.

Prescription drug abuse is the one of the greatest threats to our nation’s well-being. It is an issue that is devastating our families, our friends and our community. Prescription drug abuse crosses all race, gender and socioeconomic boundaries, and it doesn’t discriminate based on age or education. Overdoses are second only to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of accidental death in America. If we hope to reverse this trend, we must make prescription drugs more difficult and less appealing to abuse. Governor Haslam’s plan is a giant leap forward in achieving this goal.

Read more

It’s National Drug Facts Week! To celebrate, we enlisted the help of Knoxville teens to produce five public service announcements. Each PSA aims to shatter common myths about alcohol and other drugs.

To participate in National Drug Facts Week 2011:

1. Watch the PSAs at the Metropolitan Drug Commission’s YouTube channel.

2. Test your knowledge by taking the interactive National Drug IQ Challenge quiz.

3. Post your score to the Metropolitan Drug Commission’s Facebook page. Teens with the highest scores will be featured on the next edition of our ALERT newsletter!

Our October-December eNewsletter is heading your way! If you aren’t signed up, don’t fret. You can still get the latest news on our Newsletter page.

Mark your calendars for the “Preventing Teen Suicide and Substance Abuse” seminar on Thursday, October 6 from 8:30-11:00 AM at the Moses Teen Center. Guest speaker Anne Burnett Young (MS CAS) is the Program Director for Cornerstone of Recovery’s Young Adult and Residential Relapse Recovery Unit. She also serves as the East TN Chair for the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network.

A continental breakfast will be served beginning at 8:30. This FREE event, sponsored by the East Tennessee Council on Children and Youth, K-Town Youth Empowerment Network and the East Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network National Association of Social Workers, has been approved for 2.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Click HERE to register.

Have you seen our lastest promotional video? Some of the Metropolitan Drug Commission’s dedicated board members and coalition volunteers came together recently to discuss substance abuse in Knoxville, what the community can do to help and why you should become involved. Check it out!

Special thanks to the Knoxville Police Department’s Tech Services division for donating their time and talent to this project.

On September 24, from 10am-2pm, the Helen Ross McNabb Center, in collaboration with East Tennessee Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (ETAADAC), will host the 8th Annual Recovery Awareness Fair at West Town Mall in honor of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

Former UT quarterback, Erik Ainge, will be a special guest at the Recovery Awareness Fair and share his story and show his support. By combining prevention education and treatment and recovery services into one venue, we can effectively show the incredible resources East Tennessee has to offer in making a difference in people’s lives. Booths will offer information about local substance abuse treatment programs, prevention resources, and other social service organization information.