The Fountain Hills Drug Coalition is launching a new initiative on the heels of receiving a federal grant.

While the Fountain Hills Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition remains intact, its new outreach is labeled “Protect Our Youth.”

The rebranded coalition was the recipient this fall of a Drug-Free Communities grant through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The non-profit coalition was originally launched as a DFC coalition back in 2009 and has remained in existence since that time with a board of directors and staff.

Its main mission is prevention – seeking cooperation and collaboration among community groups or “sectors” as they work together to prevent young people from starting drug use.

The field of primary prevention in the drug world has grown the past few decades as evidence-based practices were introduced at the community level.

“We truly have a town that cares about its young people and working together to make Fountain Hills a safer place for families,” said Mike Scharnow, who took over the coalition as its director in the summer of 2021. “We’ve always had great cooperation among the sectors to come together and work toward common goals.”

Some of those sectors include law enforcement, town government, School District, business community, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, non-profits, the faith community and more.

The Protect Our Youth initiative will focus on preventing the use of three main substances – opioids, nicotine vaping and marijuana/marijuana concentrates.

“Such things as alcohol and tobacco remain a concern here, but our young people are increasingly turning to such things as vaping and concentrates,” Scharnow said. “And all too often those things then tend to lead users to trying pills, heroin and other opioids.”

A big emphasis this year has been on issuing warnings about fentanyl being laced into counterfeit pills that resemble legitimate prescription pills.

“Unsuspecting people are taking these pills, which are laced with fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, and they are dying,” Scharnow said.

The nation reached a depressing milestone recently when it was announced by the CDC that for the first time ever drug deaths in the U.S. surpassed the 100,000 mark within a 12-month period.

An estimated 100,306 drug-related deaths occurred in the 12 months running through April of 2021.

CDC data show that’s nearly a 30 percent increase from drug deaths recorded in the same period a year earlier.

“And that number is likely under-reported,” Scharnow said.

This means the U.S. is likely headed to a full-year record after drug deaths soared with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We clearly have our work cut out for us as a country,” Scharnow concluded. “In our little part of the world, we truly believe we can make a difference in the communities of Fountain Hills and Fort McDowell.

“As the initiative is called – it’s all about protecting our youth.”

For more information, visit fhcoalition.org.