Category Archives: Prevention

Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) reject Woke and radical leftism

by Vivek Ramaswamy <news@editor.thepostmillennial.com>  01 July 2025 14:34
THE KIDS WILL BE OK
You will never guess what’s happening with young people.  ‌ Believe it or not, the younger generation is finally rejecting woke and radical leftism. You saw this during Trump’s election […]

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“If We Can Get Them to Stop, They Can Have Such a Better Life”: Implementing Tobacco and Nicotine Dependence Treatment Services in Community Pharmacies in North Dakota

by Hailey M. Warner and Kelly Corr

ESSAY — Volume 22 — July 17, 2025
Although cigarette use among high school students and adults has declined since its peak in 1997, in North Dakota, nearly 1 in 3 high school students instead […]

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“If We Can Get Them to Stop, They Can Have Such a Better Life”: Implementing Tobacco and Nicotine Dependence Treatment Services in Community Pharmacies in North Dakota

by Hailey M. Warner and Kelly Corr

ESSAY — Volume 22 — July 17, 2025
Although cigarette use among high school students and adults has declined since its peak in 1997, in North Dakota, nearly 1 in 3 high school students instead […]

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The Surprising Truth About Addiction

OPENING STATEMENT BY NDPA and PINPOINTS:
We repeat this 2004 article by Stanton Peele as a useful position statement for us all – professionals and the lay community.  Peele’s classic 1975  text ‘Addiction and Love’ (Peele and Brosky – Published: Taplinger, […]

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Formative research and cultural tailoring of a substance abuse prevention program for American Indian youth

by Rachel Girarda, PATHS Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
Background: American Indian communities consistently identify adolescent substance use as a major concern. However, limited empirical work has examined how culturally specific protective factors – such as […]

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Exercise in Addiction Recovery: How Physical Activity Transforms Lives

 

From Shane Varcoe – Published: 04 August 2025

Physical activity emerges as a powerful ally in exercise addiction recovery, offering hope and healing for those struggling with substance dependency. Recent groundbreaking research reveals how structured exercise programmes can reshape both body […]

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Substance Use and Mental Health – engaging with youth

 

 

From CDC Media Relations – August 5, 2025
 

The back-to-school season is a great time to engage with youth about mental health and substance use to promote their well-being throughout the academic year. To support these conversations, the Centers for Disease Control […]

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Learning Theory

 
Perhaps the simplest explanation for tobacco’s gateway drug function involves what teenagers learn when they smoke cigarettes. According to one source, “. . .the gateway drug phenomenon is simply an example of practice conditioning, that leads to the development of […]

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Parents ignorant of passive smoking health risks

 
Parents are unaware of the health risks of passive smoking on their children, a new report by ASH has shown, Only a quarter of parents are aware asthma can be a risk. And just 3% of parents identified cot death […]

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Parents: talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol

 
It seems as if every community, big or small, has been impacted by the problems associated with substance use and drug overdose. Within communities, these problems can extend into the family unit, with people often becoming addicted and dying because […]

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Parents and Drugs

 
A search was made to assess what research has been done in the areas of parent surveys and parent programmes for drug prevention with children – most research on drug prevention education has been done in the late 1970s, early […]

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Parents’ concerns, attitudes, and needs

 
Parents play a key role in their children’s education and social development and therefore can be influential in educating their children about drugs. Despite this, there has been little research done to date that explores parents’ perceptions. This paper reports […]

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A Healthy Start: Some Parenting Practices May Protect Youth From Early Marijuana Use

 
Parenting practices during the middle years of elementary school, such as supervision and monitoring, may affect adolescent initiation of marijuana use, according to a new NIDA-supported study conducted by Dr. Chuan-Yu Chen and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg […]

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The Top Seven of Teen Substance Use Trends Parents Need to Know in 2025

by Pat Aussem, L.P.C., M.A.C., Vice President, Consumer Clinical Content Development – June 2025

Personalized support for addressing your child’s substance use or addiction
(available in English and Spanish)
 

Fentanyl poisoning & counterfeit pills
According to the CDC, deaths from fentanyl poisoning are […]

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Teens Learn about the Many Risks of Vaping — Nicotine and THC Are More Potent, Addictive, and Dangerous than Ever

by Barbara A. Preston | www.themontynews.org – June 6, 2025

Montgomery Police and Health Department officials are partnering to raise awareness about the dangers of vaping and substance abuse. They sponsored a program at Montgomery High School on Friday, June 6, […]

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Why We Need to Modernize Substance Use Education

 
These TC experts emphasize the critical need for a more proactive approach to substance use education

More than 40,000 youth used nicotine pouches last year alone, a staggering increase from 2021. The relatively new and less detectable product’s increasing prevalence among youth […]

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Red Ribbon Week

 
RED RIBBON WEEK is Celebrated Annually October 23-31.
Red Ribbon Week highlights the importance of living a drug-free life. It presents an opportunity for parents, educators, and communities to reinforce the drug-free messages they share with their children throughout the year. […]

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In Oregon, parents and teachers catalyze drug prevention in schools

 
Armed with knowledge and tools, parents are making a big difference in local school districts  
by  Emily Green   February 1, 2024

  Mila Priest, 8, focuses on computer playing the PAX Good Behavior Game during class at Fern Hill Elementary School in […]

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Preventing bullying can prevent substance abuse

Posted Saturday, October 12, 2024

By MARIE GARCEAU
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Bullying prevention programs begin locally, with communities and the individuals within them creating safe and supportive schools, organizations, neighborhoods and family units.
 
While this campaign is not as recognized as much […]

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Good parenting as catalyst for drug free society

 
 

The battle against substance abuse is one that spans generations and transcends borders. The prevalence of drug abuse is staggering, with far-reaching consequences that ripple through communities and societies.

 

According to the World Health Organisation,  substance abuse claims the lives of […]

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Operation Prevention – Video Challenge

Teenagers across America were invited to submit 30-60 second video public service announcements that capture their unique voice in order to communicate the opioid epidemic as a national crisis.

The second-annual video challenge is a part of a joint […]

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We Haven’t Forgotten about Marijuana or Alcohol. Neither Should You

Our country is in the depths of an opioid epidemic, but a large number of calls to our Parent Helpline are from parents concerned about their son’s or daughter’s marijuana use. A timely reminder that while the landscape is constantly […]

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The Opioid Epidemic Is An Historic Opportunity To Improve Both Prevention And Treatment

 

By Robert DuPont

The current narrative describing the national opioid epidemic as the result of overprescribing opioid pain medicines fails to capture the full dimensions of the problem and leads to inadequate and even confounding solutions. Overlooked is the fact that […]

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Reducing Future Rates Of Adult Addiction Must Begin With Youth Prevention

The United States is confronting a public health crisis of rising adult drug addiction, most visibly documented by an unprecedented number of opioid overdose deaths. Most of these overdose deaths are not from the use of a single substance – […]

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PREVENTION – GETTING AHEAD OF THE GAME

Prevention, the word and meaning, comes from the Latin “praevenire” which means “to come before”. In other words, to act pre-the event – not during it or after it. Any action later than pre-the event is not prevention, it is […]

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Over 100 Child Abuse Deaths Found Related to Cannabis, with Rise of Commercial Industry

As articles in popular magazines portray cannabis as the “it” drug, parents are being led to believe that a serving of marijuana is no more dangerous than a glass of beer or wine.”

— Dr. Ken Finn

WASHINGTON, DC, US, April 23, […]

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Cannabis Conundrum

Cannabis ConundrumEd Sheeran Has Quit Smoking Marijuana January 15, 2019Ed Sheeran has quit smoking marijuana because he prefers to be “alert”. The singer, who wrote song Sweet Mary Jane about his love of the drug in 2015, has now […]

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How Iceland’s Planet Youth Program Curbed Teen Drinking, Drug Use

The program focuses on giving Icelandic youth “better options” than drugs and alcohol.
In 1999, a study following the long-term impact of D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) concluded that the popular anti-drug program did little to prevent American youth from experimenting with drugs and […]

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Sunny’s Story, a Drug Prevention Book for Elementary, Middle and High School Students

Sunny’s Story, a drug prevention book for elementary, middle and high school students, tells a tragic tale of the loss of a young boys life to drugs, narrated through the eyes and ears of the family beagle.
 
The family dog and […]

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8 Steps to Help your chld say “No” to Drugs

1.   Talk with your child about alcohol and other drugs.
2.   Really listen to your child
3.   Praise often;  if need to, criticize the action not the child.
4.    Help your child with peer pressure.  Teach how to resist.
5.   Make family rules […]

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drug prevention

NEWS

Statewide billboard campaign to tackle drug abuse problem
San Francisco Chronicle
Officials say association members are donating about 200 digital, poster, and bulletin billboards with the messages: “Start Talking!” and “#677 for Impaired Drivers.” Start Talking! is Ohio’s drug prevention program […]

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drug prevention

Weighing costs of drug abuse prevention vs. treatment
Youngstown Vindicator
At recent local forums on the opioid epidemic, members of the public submitted questions they wanted the local media to answer in its reporting. One question was: What are the costs […]

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Promoting Illicit Drug Prevention Initiatives Nationally

Promoting Illicit Drug Prevention Initiatives Nationally
 
Attention: Pamela McColl, SAM Canada.
 
On behalf of the Board, Drug Free Australia we write in support of your effort to prevent the legalization of cannabis in Canada.
 
Drug Free Australia has a strong position against the […]

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Marijuana Accountability Coalition Holds Open Press Event to Release New Data on the Harms of Marijuana Commercialization in Colorado

(February 22, 2018 – Denver, CO) – The Marijuana Accountability Coalition (MAC), along with Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), launched a new report today examining marijuana legalization in Colorado, joining Colorado Christian University and the Centennial Institute in an open press event. SAM honorary […]

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Hidden in Plain Sight exhibit enlightens parents on where teens hide drugs

 Hidden in Plain Sight exhibit enlightens parents on where teens hide drugs

By: Marc Mullins

MADISON COUNTY, Ind. – Parents in Madison County are learning where teens may hide drugs, thanks to a mobile exhibit.
 
A trailer exhibit called Hidden in Plain Sight is ran by […]

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Weighing costs of drug abuse prevention vs. treatment

At recent local forums on the opioid epidemic, members of the public submitted questions they wanted the local media to answer in its reporting.
 
One question was: What are the costs of addiction vs. the costs of preventing it?
 
The consensus among […]

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I’M LIVING PROOF THAT MARIJUANA IS A GATEWAY DRUG

 

 

by Steve   I am 66 now and nothing to show for what I’ve done in my life because of marijuana. I started smoking it at age 18 while going to college. This was during the Viet Nam War era and our […]

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Effective Prevention Methods are Ready for Implementation

 
Both experience and research has proven that drug addiction and other drug-related problems are both preventable and treatable. Prevention is effective, humane, cost-effective, and empowering. Prevention solves problems before they ever occur. And prevention reduces other social problems and should […]

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A DECADE IN PREVENTION

 
 
 
There are risk factors and protective factors that can contribute to drug and alcohol use and other risky behaviors for youth. Prevention works to decrease the risk factors and strengthen the protective factors. Risk factors are influences in a young […]

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Innovative Peer-to-Peer Drug Prevention Initiative Shows Promising Results with High School Students

 
As the U.S. is facing its most challenging drug epidemic in history, the need to prevent adolescence drug misuse is imperative. For the past two years, Mentor Foundation USA and George Washington University have piloted an innovative drug prevention peer-to-peer […]

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An article from the USA where drug use is increasing amongst young people. Parents need to read this about Florida and work to prevent the same thing happening anywhere else.

 
BRUCE GRANT: DON’T UNDERMINE DRUG PREVENTION
 
For over a decade, activists and big-money lobbyists have worked to make marijuana legal. In so doing, they have wreaked havoc on community efforts to reduce drug use, abuse and addiction. Their pro-drug messages contradict […]

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“DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION – The Role of the Schools”

 
These excerpts from 1986 should be read by anyone interested in the current drugs situation. Nancy Starr is still working in Drug Prevention and is a real expert.
 
Some of the ‘drug education’ used in UK schools today is […]

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For Kids

If you are offered marijuana, think about:
 
1) The person who is giving it to you. Does this person really care about you? Can you trust this person with your life, if you have a panic attack […]

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’KNOW THE TRUTH:’ A FIRST STEP ON THE PATH TO PREVENTION

 
For the second year in a row, “Know the Truth,” the prevention program of Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge in the Twin Cities, brought its message about drug and alcohol use and abuse to Hudson — both to students and […]

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PREVENTION WEBSITES

 
ACT NOW, Sweden
www.ActNow.nu
 
ALASKA
www.bigmarijuanabigmistake.org
 
CASA (Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse)
http://www.casacolumbia.org/
 
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CESAR)
http://www.cesar.umd.edu/
 
Cool Youth anti-drug website
Home

 
Courage to Speak Foundation (CT)
http://www.couragetospeak.com
 
D.A.R.E. America
http://www.dare-america.com/home/default.asp
 
DEA , Just Think Twice – Street smart prevention **
www.justthinktwice.com
 
Doctors For […]

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COMMUNITY TASK FORCE LOOKS TO PREVENTION, targets teens and parents

 
 
Dr. Philip Bolduc, a family medicine physician and director of the addiction treatment program at Family Health Center in Worcester, said if we’re ever to stem the tide of opiate addiction, we have to start with prevention among teenagers.
 
“No one […]

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3 Ways to Address Teenage Motivation to Drink that Don’t Involve Scare Tactics

 
When someone – including a teenager – gets treatment for alcohol and substance abuse, it is standard practice to identify some of the reasons why they started using and the benefits they feel they get from these substances. This helps […]

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More Effort Needs To Be On Drug Prevention, Not Cure

 

© Getty Images
 
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced that it is ending the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and replacing it with an as-yet undefined effort to be administered by SAMHSA’s newly created […]

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Grandparents: What role can they play in preventing alcohol and other drug use?

Increasingly I am seeing more grandparents attend my Parent Information Evenings. Some are now their grandchild’s primary caregiver and are really struggling to deal with adolescent behaviour, coming to the talk looking for any tips that may assist them to […]

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More Effort Needs To Be On Drug Prevention, Not Cure

© Getty Images
 
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced that it is ending the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and replacing it with an as-yet undefined effort to be administered by SAMHSA’s newly created […]

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PREVENTION DOES NOT START WHEN THE ABUSE IS ALREADY A FACT

 
Prevention starts before it becomes a reality!
 
 
Survey results show that we still have a long way to go in our efforts to prevent cannabis use and avoid the toll it can take on a young person’s life. Parents have an […]

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YOUTH VIDEO AGAINST DRUGS

 
In Florida, USA, the pro legalisation groups are hoping to win a referendum vote in the Autumn (2014) which would legalise cannabis in the State.
 
 
 
But parents, medics and prevention activists are getting the message out that pot is not harmless.
 
 
 
The […]

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Sunny’s Story: A Drug Prevention Book How to Save a Young Life From Drugs

 

 
Sunny’s Story by Ginger Katz is narrated through the eyes, ears and mind of Sunny, the family beagle.  The story tells of joyful times and sad times and  how a best friend was needlessly lost to  addiction.
 
 

 
Sunny’s Story
Written by Ginger Katz
CEO […]

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YOUTH VIDEO AGAINST DRUGS

 
In Florida, USA, the pro legalisation groups are hoping to win a referendum vote in the Autumn (2014) which would legalise cannabis in the State.
  
 
But parents, medics and prevention activists are getting the message out that pot is not harmless.
 
  
The […]

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NIDA: HOW TO SAY NO – ILLUSTRATED WITH PICTURES

 

Have a drug problem—need help?
 
Even when you are confident in your decision not to use drugs or alcohol, it can be hard when it’s your friend who is offering.
 
A lot of times, a simple “no thanks” may be enough. But […]

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KNOW THE TRUTH: A FIRST STEP ON THE PATH TO PREVENTION

For the second year in a row, “Know the Truth,” the prevention program of Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge in the Twin Cities, brought its message about drug and alcohol use and abuse to Hudson — both to students and […]

Read More

“DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION – The Role of the Schools”

These excerpts from 1986 should be read by anyone interested in the current drugs situation.  Nancy Starr is still working in Drug Prevention and is a real expert.
 
Some of the ‘drug education’  used in UK schools today is still the […]

Read More

DON’T UNDERMINE DRUG PREVENTION

An article from the USA where drug use is increasing amongst young people.
Parents need to read this about Florida and work to prevent the same thing happening anywhere else.
 
 
For over a decade, activists and big-money lobbyists have worked to make […]

Read More

A DECADE IN PREVENTION

This article from a drug prevention worker in the USA emphasises what contributes to helping young people from choosing to use drug.
 
 
There are risk factors and protective factors that can contribute to drug and alcohol use and other risky behaviors […]

Read More