2009 Annual Report

Message from the Chairman

2009 was a busy and exciting year.

This Annual Report chronicles the wide array of CASA activities - the cutting edge research of Jon Morgenstern and his team of health, prevention and treatment specialists to help needy families with troubled adolescents, get Medicaid patients with substance-abuse problems into treatment in order to help them and reduce health care costs, and test the efficacy of brief interventions in emergency rooms to encourage substance-abusing patients to enter treatment; CASACONFERENCES^SM that attract participants from across the nation; our CASASTART^SM program that helps high-risk 8- to 13-year-olds and their families; and media outreach to inform our people of the need to confront substance abuse in order to solve our nation’s social, criminal justice and health care problems.

This year we released Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets, the first study to measure the costs of tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drug abuse to federal, state and local governments. The 287-page report set those costs in 2005 at $467 billion. Most troubling, 96 cents of each dollar federal and state governments spent went to shovel up the wreckage caused by substance abuse and addiction; less than 2 cents went to prevention and treatment.

In August, Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone/Fireside division published our book, How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid: The Straight Dope for Parents. Authored by me, the book is based on almost 20 years of CASA research identifying the factors that increase or decrease the risk of teen substance use. The book was prompted by our findings that a child who gets through age 21 without smoking, using illegal drugs or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so; and that parents have the greatest influence on whether their kids will use tobacco, alcohol or other drugs. The book provides straightforward, useable, reader-friendly advice to help parents raise healthy, drug-free kids.

Today, The Early Show, The View, Morning Joe, and The O'Reilly Factor have discussed the book. Experts in the field have endorsed it. The book is published as an original paperback so that any parent can afford it. All royalties go to CASA. I am traveling across the country to speak to thousands of parents, share insights into their children's world and provide them with tools and tips on raising drug-free kids. To book a parent talk visit www.straightdopeforparents.org.

August marked the release of our 14th annual National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV: Teens and Parents. This year’s survey revealed that if a teen is drinking, the odds are that teen is getting drunk, and that almost nine million teens can get prescription drugs to get high within a day - nearly five million within an hour.

CASA's Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children^TM is celebrated on the fourth Monday of September to remind parents that frequent family dinners reduce the likelihood that their children will smoke, drink or use drugs. President Obama, 49 Governors and more than 1,000 mayors and county executives proclaimed and supported Family Day. Stouffer’s became the first Title Sponsor and The Coca-Cola Company served as the Presenting Sponsor. First Ladies in 12 states spearheaded celebrations. Ten Major League Baseball teams promoted the day at their stadiums. Hundreds of corporations, religious groups and community organizations joined the celebration.

CASA has an extraordinary board of directors. Sadly, this year we lost Michael A. Wiener, who is remembered on page 22 of this report.

This year we welcomed Clyde C. Tuggle, senior vice president of Global Public Affairs and Communications at The Coca-Cola Company. His energy and dedication to help children grow up drug free will greatly strengthen CASA’s board.

CASA’s work is made possible through generous contributions from corporations and individuals. All CASA board members and officers contribute each year.

Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP provides pro bono legal services. We are especially grateful to Fred Kanner, Harvey Kurzweil, Nathan Dee, Matthew DiRisio, Joshua Levin-Epstein, Devon Goldberg, Alexander Kayne, John Kennedy, Stan Lovenworth, William MacDonald, Janis Meyer, Joseph Murphy, Monique Ribando and Rosa Walker.

CASA Board member Jamie Lee Curtis graciously donated her time and voice to our Family Day public service announcements. CBS and TV Land donated air time to increase awareness of Family Day.

Thanks also to: David Patrick Columbia and Eric Weiss who donated photographs for use in this annual report; Board member Michael Roth and the Interpublic Group of Companies for their creative expertise in helping CASA get it message out to millions of Americans; Avrett Free Ginsberg for the outstanding Family Day PSA; McCann Erickson’s Mark Strong, Stephanie Johnson, Brandon Larson, David Teicher, Brian Racis, and Luz Tejada from SPLIT, who are helping develop strategic public affairs plans; Sarah Lightfoot, Nasser McMayo, John Palisay II, Cecilio Rosario, Alexis Scavo, Billy Shaw, Erica Taylor and Carl Weber at Draftfcb, who produced this annual report. We appreciate the continued assistance of KPMG, our independent auditors led by Kim Johnson.

CASA is premier in its field because of the hard work, creativity and dedication of our talented team of more than 60 professionals. They are what make CASA the “go to” organization for practitioners, public officials, researchers and the media.

In this time of economic distress, CASA remains diligent in studying the economic and social cost of substance abuse and addiction on all sectors of society. We are dedicated to changing the way Americans think about this disease.

While much has been accomplished, there is still much to do. Please use the envelope in this annual report to make a contribution to CASA. Your support is more important than ever.