Accessing National HIDTA Training Programs Online

”This is what the National HIDTA Assistance Center provides; the following is a
list of courses through which
http://training.hidta.org the officials and other
law enforcement personnel can be trained about combating drug trafficking.” Here’s how you can access these programs:

1. Visit the NHAC Website

The first thing that should be done in order to enter the training programs is to go to the official web-site of the National HIDTA Assistance Center. Training programs, Web site Webinars, and other supplementary materials are available on the Web site and may be helpful for the personnel in their work.

Link: HIDTA National Support Center

2. Explore Training Options

Once the user gets on the website, go to the Training tab.

Online Courses: These self paced courses enable the participant to study at their own pace. The topics include financial management, drug enforcement strategies such and many others.

Webinars: This has coverage through live sessions is a strict business of giving lectures about various burning issues in the area of drug trafficking.

Workshops: Sometimes the workshops can be conducted face-to-face, but more often, such activities are organized online.

Subsequently determine the compatible training programs within the available options.

3. Register for a Course

Select a Course: Enter the WebMO system, locate the desired training program by clicking it and please read the course description.

Create an Account: If necessary, you may be asked to register on the NHAC portal using your personal email address. This mainly calls for entry of the simplest details of an individual as well as an identification check as a legal enforcement agent or a related staff.

Complete Registration: Once you’ve created an account, you will be asked to proceed with enrollment for the selected course.

4. Participate in Training

Here’s what to expect:

Interactive Content: A notable aspect of numerous courses is the use of videos, readings and quizzes so as to help improve on your knowledge about the subject matter.

Discussion Forums: Use of discussion forums in order to interact with instructors and other participants. That is very useful when you wish to share some ideas and discuss the remaining ones that might be unclear for the other team members.

Completion Certificates: On completion of a course, you can be awarded a certificate that certifies your presence hence the recognition for professional enhancement.

5. Stay Updated

In addition, monitor the NHAC website for relevent new courses and training regularly offering. The study of drug enforcement countermeasures is a constantly changing field, so you’ll be the up to date best weapons to use.

How to Access National HIDTA Training Programs Online

The HIDTA program is actually a very important strategy that is used when
dealing with the issue of drug trafficking all over the United States of America.
Of the ways by which HIDTA sets out to achieve the aforementioned goals, is
through the National HIDTA Assistance Center (NHAC) which is involved in
offering a range of training. About these programs: offer police, other
employees and other interest groups the essential competencies and
understanding and prevent drug trafficking. This blog post will therefore help
you to learn how you can access National HIDTA training programs from the
internet.

Lack of Accessible Training Resources

Law enforcement agencies struggle in the war on drug trafficking because of
inadequate training resources. Employee knowledge management is another
area of concern, where many agencies fail to ensure their people remain informed regarding the most effective approaches and trends in the application of legal trends and tools. This can lead to several issues:

Limited Knowledge: The officers and staff may be poorly trained to offset the complicated incidences in the way which is required.

Inefficient Operations: Some of them include: With unproper training given to the agencies, then they would have no efficient ways to apply the equipment’s available which in turn leads to a lot time and efforts being consumed.

Poor Communication: Inexperienced officers may fail to relay messages well to their colleagues hence operational mishaps are bound to happen.

Lack of proper training now poses a scenario where the police LEA’s are far from coming to par in combating drug related matters.

Training Resources

The Impact of Insufficient Training

Just consider a state police department in a particular area facing a new surge in drug-related offenses. Police officers are on the frontline, and many of them are ignorant on the best strategies and methodologies in the fight against drug menace. As a result, they may miss critical information, leading to:

Increased Crime Rates: Some of the ineffective strategies may increase levels of drug trafficking as well as related crimes in societies.

Resource Wastage: This is because, resources used in conducting these methods could, instead, be utilized in creating new strategies that fit existing paradigms.

Frustration Among Staff: According to the study, officers may feel pressured and unprepared in handling the various issues arising from the acts of drug trafficking with the least preparation.

These problems highlight the importance of further training and effective professional development available to personnel in the ATO.

1. Major Requirements of Federal Grant

The training enables one to have aeliberate appreciation of the federal regulations and grant management rules governing the use of HIDTA funds. At the end of the training, participants are well aware of the major deadlines, regulatory demands, and grant provisions. This makes certain that offices within HIDTA are always in compliance with federal requirements for purpose of agreeing with federal directives; penalties, or reduction of funding.

2. HIDTA Financial Management Systems—to achieve mastery of and sustain excellence in HIDTA’s Financial Management Systems.

It helps to improve the knowledge of staff in order to work with the automated financial management systems. These systems ensure that tracking and reporting is automatic no more manual work and that the data being reported on is uniform. Trainees learn how to:

Reduce your expenses and make sure to code them under the right line of service.

Prepare reports that will provide a picture of expenditure and the budget.

Ensure federal grant regulations are met through the use of the above automation.

Through these systems, the staff is able to minimize their activities in relation to the accounts and generally enhance the efficiency of undertaking financial activities.

3. But the problem that causes some turbulence is the fifth step which involves efficient budgeting and forecasting.

Budgeting remains an essential part of the financial management since the organization has two sources of its funding. TRAINING EMPHASIZES THE NEED FOR HIDTA STAFF TO BE ABLE TO ANTICIPATE SPENDING REQUIREMENT AND CONTROL BUDGETS. Participants learn how to:

Draw up and operate reasonable forecasts of expenditure from historical records fronted marketing expenditures.

Use funds appropriately aim at not stretching them or underspending them.

It is important to make certain that expenditures are consistent with the object of the program and federal regulation.

It is crucial to know how to create good working budgets, and this training aims at preparing participants on how they can do it better and avoid the common pitfall of spending too much or not spending at all.

4. Improving Financial Reporting

Another key concept under discussion in the training is the financial reporting. Facilitated by the NHAC, the Financial Management System Training introduces the staff to techniques for creating sound financial reports. That assists in increasing the level of transparency, and HIDTA managers can forward lacking documents to federal authorities and other stakeholders.

This subject will teach you how to create various financial reports inclusive of the monthly, quarterly, and annual ones.

Get to know how to clear accounts and right balance them.

Keep the accounts as clean as possible in a way that no audit will be a problem and all requirements fulfilled.

These enhanced reporting processes help to decrease the amount of time spent on administrative work, but provide sound, current financial data.Improving Financial Reporting

5. Best Practices for Internal Controls

The training also seeks to drill the message of internal control as a means of financial sanity. HIDTA offices can learn how to establish strong internal controls, including:

Segregation of duties: Please make sure no single person handles every single financial responsibility so as to avoid frau or mistakes.

Regular audits: Examining own client records to check and reverse any inaccurate entries made in preparation for external audits.

Documentation: Evidently maintaining records which imply all financial dealings to be as much clearer and transparent as possible.

They assist the HIDTA programs to operate under considerable accountability and avoid cases of fraud within the financial transactions.

National HIDTA Assistance Center Financial Management System Training

Being in charge of a government-funded program means paying strict attention to the amounts,
figuring the finances down to the penny, and adhering to various notions of law.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program which is aimed at promising drug trafficking and its impacts in the
USA uses effective systems of structural-financial management.
Whereas these systems facilitate the effective operation of the affairs of the programs’ funds without compromising on public money accountability.
The National HIDTA Assistance Center (NHAC) provides staff with essential Financial Management System Training for effective stewardship of HIDTA’s financial assets.

Complex Financial Regulations and Systems

For featured respondents, the primary threats stem from six areas of risk management: program management,
federal grants, internal controls, financial reporting, regional HIDTA offices, and fraud prevention.
The HIDTA program receives its funds through federal grants therefore it must adhere to strict finance policies and procedures.
Some of the key challenges include:

Complex Grant Management: Funding from HIDTA is governed by federal grant guidelines by this it is mandatory to demonstrate high levels of compliance in budgeting, reporting and expenses.

Multiple Funding Streams: Quite frequently, HIDTA programs implement multiple source of funding which means multiple set of requirements for tracking and reporting.

Manual and Disorganized Processes: The problem is that if not well trained, managing finances can be extremely manual, uncoordinated and riddled with a lot of mistakes.

Accountability Pressure: As public money is being used, the pressure on HIDTA managers to be as creditable and accurate as possible is immense knowing that each dollar should reach the desired area.

Such problems put at risk the very effective achievement of HIDTA’s goals and objectives through non-compliance, misused funds or indeed penalties.

The Risk of Poor Financial Management

Supposes you are an employee of a regional HIDTA office which provides tracking and management of multi-faceted funding
but offers little advisement on the systems that support finances.
Lack of proper finance management skills will prompt the team to misuse the available capital sometimes
spending lots of money or else using little money in many areas.
Even petty mistakes accumulate over a period and compiling the financial data accurate becomes almost impossible,
budgeting and even accountability becomes a challenge.

For instance:

Basically, failure to meet SHS objectives may lead to missing some deadlines for grant reports that leads to the non-renewal of funding.

It means that wrong records could keep recording more expenses on particular things and fail to recognize others,
which is not good when it comes to accounting.

There is no training in the management of the financial system, whereby it is hard to know how money is spent or audited.

Inadequate communication between the groups involved in handling of finances and program owners
could even escalate the problems experienced in budgeting and forecasting levels by contributing to frustration in the working process.

These are cumbersome issues that cause time barriers within HIDTA’s work and hinder the fight against drug-trafficking as its mission.

Kentucky’s Medical Marijuana Plan Structure

Ohio, where recreational marijuana is legal, raked in $11 million in the first five days, complicating Kentucky’s medical marijuana plans.
Kentucky has previously allowed residents with at least one of 21 conditions, such as muscular dystrophy and cancer,
to legally use medical cannabis if they meet the conditions. You must purchase it in a state where cannabis is regulated in the U.S.,
you can’t possess more than 8 ounces at a time, and you must have a medical certificate stating that you suffer from one or more of the 21 diseases.
Those who meet all of these requirements can legally purchase cannabis in another state and bring it into Kentucky.
Even with this clear medical marijuana program in place, some people have been buying recreational marijuana in Ohio and bringing it into Kentucky, which is strictly illegal.

People bringing recreational marijuana from Ohio to Kentucky

HHS Devises Alternative Test for Medical Marijuana

Recent scientific research has prompted HHS to devise an alternative test for medical use that is more empirical.
As a result, more than 30,000 healthcare providers have already recommended marijuana to their patients,
demonstrating its medical use, and it has been argued that marijuana should be rescheduled.

Loopholes in HHS’s Alternative Testing

However, opponents of this alternative test argue that other psychedelics do not have the same clinical experience and are unlikely to be rescheduled because they do not have the same level of public support as marijuana.
To address this issue, instead of creating a new medical use test, the agency should consider all three characteristics of a drug when determining its schedule and not place it in Schedule 1 simply because it has no medical use.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reschedules marijuana

The Drug Enforcement Agency has announced that it is moving marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 under the Controlled Substances Act.
Marijuana advocates see this decision as an attempt to loosen controls on hallucinogens like LSD and MDMA. However,
the decision to reschedule marijuana will not make it impossible for other drugs to be removed from Schedule 1,
and the rescheduling of marijuana will not cause other drugs to be rescheduled.

Drug classification under the Controlled Substances Act

The Controlled Substances Act creates five schedules,
with drugs in Schedule 1 having the most stringent restrictions and drugs in Schedule 5 having looser restrictions.
The Drug Enforcement Agency will look at three characteristics to determine scheduling: medical use, dependence liability,
and abuse potential. However, the Drug Enforcement Agency has argued that drugs with no medical use should be placed in Schedule 1 regardless of other characteristics.

Clinical trials must be completed to reclassify a drug schedule

Furthermore, proving a drug’s medical use requires the completion of controlled trials that show it is effective in treating medical conditions,
which is very difficult for drugs that are placed in Schedule 1 and are subject to severe restrictions.

The Link Between Cannabis Use Disorder and Head and Neck Cancer

Among all head and neck cancer cases,
we found a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder in 116,000 cases and found that people with a cannabis use disorder
were 2.5 times more likely to have oral cancer and 5 times more likely to have oropharyngeal cancer.
These findings were the same across all age groups,
and experts pointed to the smoke from smoking tobacco and cannabis as increasing the risk of cancer,
and warned that the combination of alcohol increases the risk

Diagnosing cannabis use disorder

The way cannabis is smoked is linked to cancer

They also noted that the way cannabis is smoked, with deep inhalation and lingering smoke in the throat,
and the cannabinoids present in cannabis have been linked to cancer. With the recent legalization of marijuana,
the expert said that marijuana use is likely to increase, which could lead to an increase in head and neck cancer diagnoses in the future. 

Consistently communicate the dangers of cannabis use

To prevent this, people should continue to be informed of the risks of cannabis use and further research should be conducted to determine the link between cancer incidence and cannabis use.

Long-term marijuana use increases incidence of head and neck cancer

After analyzing millions of medical records, a study found that long-term marijuana use increases the incidence of head and neck cancer.
The study did not distinguish between methods of cannabis consumption, suggesting that the results were based on smoking cannabis.

CDC’s Diagnostic Criteria for Cannabis Use Disorder

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) diagnoses a person with a cannabis use disorder if they use cannabis despite experiencing problems in their lives, or if they have strong cravings for cannabis.
The National Cancer Institute also reports that a person diagnosed with throat or mouth cancer has a 69% chance of surviving five years or more,
but that drops to 14% if the cancer metastasizes.

Leading causes of head and neck cancer

Experts say that tobacco and alcohol are the leading causes of head and neck cancers,
while an unbalanced diet and a weakened immune system also increase the risk. Additionally,
people with Epstein-Barr virus and human papillomavirus are more likely to develop cancer. 

Ohio recreational marijuana sales begin

Recreational marijuana is now available for sale in Ohio, and sales are higher than expected.
Ohioans are so enthusiastic about recreational marijuana that sales of recreational marijuana have now surpassed sales of medical marijuana.
Recreational marijuana retailers are pleased with the enthusiastic response from their customers and hope to continue to serve them in the future.
The Bureau of Cannabis Control is impressed with the lengths that recreational marijuana retailers have gone to in order to meet sales requirements and will continue to regulate sales to ensure that Ohioans have access to safe cannabis.

Residents have mixed feelings about recreational marijuana legalization

With recreational marijuana use now likely to be legalized in Florida,
a Florida state senator has proposed a bill that would ban smoking in all public places.
The idea of legalizing recreational marijuana differs among the citizens of the state of Florida.
There are positive opinions that legalization will bring in more money by regulating the negative effects.
On the other hand, there are those who support medical marijuana but see no reason to legalize recreational marijuana. 

Thoughts on Florida’s Public Smoking Ban Bill

As for Florida’s public smoking ban,
there are those who believe that the new law will not be effective because there are already laws that restrict where people can smoke.
On the other hand, there are those who support the bill because they believe that the new law will have a positive effect on some people who cause harm to others by smoking in public.

Ohio recreational marijuana

Legal marijuana’s high price makes it less competitive

Companies make stronger products and advertise them to make people curious because they are legalized.
Also, legal marijuana is sold at a higher price than illegal marijuana, making it uncompetitive in price compared to illegal marijuana.
The reason why legal marijuana is more expensive than illegal marijuana is because New York has been strictly regulating marijuana,
only issuing licenses to a small number of people, which naturally drives up the price.

How to curb the illegal marijuana market

The only way to make legal marijuana more price competitive is to deregulate it,
license anyone who wants to sell it and lower taxes so they can grow their business, and the illegal marijuana market will gradually disappear.
However, this would make marijuana as accessible to many people as alcohol and tobacco.

The Social Impact of Marijuana Deregulation

Alcohol and tobacco also cause a lot of social problems,
but they are hardly regulated. If marijuana were deregulated,
we don’t know what social effects it would have, but it would reduce the size of the illegal marijuana market.

illegal marijuana market