Nassau County-based PACT/YES partnered with Suffolk County-based Town of Babylon Cares to create a cross-county cannabis awareness campaign to help keep youth and our communities safe. Multiple sectors of community partners contributed to the creation of the campaign to make sure it resonates with all community members throughout Long Island, New York.
The Let’s Be Blunt campaign has two-fold goals. The first is making sure adults who use cannabis in the home are securing and monitoring their cannabis so their children and youth can’t get access to it.
According to the New York City Poison Control Center, in NYC, Long Island and Westchester combined, the cases of exposure to cannabis products to children less than 5 years old has increased from 3 in 2018 to 146 as of 2022.
The second goal is making sure those who do use cannabis are not drugged driving, we are making it clear that driving high is a danger to themselves, the public and it’s against the law. According to the Institute for Traffic Safety, “44% of all fatalities in NY state were caused by an impaired driver” based on a five-year average (2015-2020).
In the end, one of the greatest elements of this campaign was the collaboration efforts involving so many different stakeholders. We were able to meet with the community members as well as professionals in prevention to solidify a message that would have great meaning. We gathered feedback from young adults, parents, and many others to allow us to be culturally relevant and allow a space for people in the community to be receptive to the message regardless of their status of use.
For more information, please contact pact@yesccc.org.
Our information and materials related to the “Let’s Be Blunt” campaign is available in Spanish & English.
English
Chinese (Simplified)
French
Hindi
Persian
Portuguese
Spanish