We developed principles drawn from empowerment and realist evaluation theories to guide a family youth alcohol and drug program evaluation, before reflecting on our experience to develop additional principles for future work. The research team included the program clinician and an independent researcher. A purposive sample of young people and one…

Background: Comprehensive health education in schools can effectively prevent drug use and related outcomes, but successful implementation remains challenging. Contextual determinants, including intervention-setting compatibility, focus on the intervention, available resources, and leadership support, influence implementation success. This study…

Cannabis is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. The unprecedented expansion of the industry has been influenced by the changing regulatory landscape on industrial hemp, medical cannabis, and adult-use cannabis. The wide variety of cannabis- and hemp-related jobs, from agricultural production to product sales, require a…

Similar to national trends, in Illinois, fatal opioid overdoses have risen. Black men (35+) outrank all other racial subgroups for the highest rate of fatal opioid overdoses in the state. To address this, Prevention First and the Illinois Department of Human Services developed a public health education campaign to support increasing enrollment in…

Drug use trends change rapidly among youth, leaving educators and researchers struggling to respond promptly. Widely adopted universal evidence-based interventions (EBIs), such as the Michigan Model for Health™ (MMH), and their delivery systems offer an opportunity to reach large youth populations and reduce the onset and escalation of emerging…

The purpose of this study was to develop, test, and use an instrument to measure the effectiveness of a community-based, mandated drug education intervention program, Youthful Offenders Program (YOP), targeting college students at risk. A total of N = 350 students voluntarily agreed to participate in an evaluation of program effectiveness using…

Drug Outreach, Promoting Awareness (DOPA) is an undergraduate outreach program for local high school students designed to convey the neurobiological basis, risks, and addictive potential of commonly abused drugs. Here we describe DOPA and evaluate the program, including its impact on high school student attitudes about drug harm risk and…

The study investigates the effectiveness and appropriateness of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Keepin' it REAL (KiR) curriculum--America's most prevalent in-school prevention programme--using a modified systematic review procedure as adapted from the Cochrane Handbook. No published studies research the D.A.R.E. version of KiR, and…

Today's youth face multifaceted challenges in a time when society is more aware of the consequences of unhealthy decision-making. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of an emerging intervention, GPS for SUCCESS, a classroom-based 5-week program that helps students build their purpose in life while securing a commitment to achieve it. We…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established School Health Profiles (Profiles) in 1996 to monitor school health policies and practices in secondary schools in states and school districts across the United States. Profiles is a system of surveys conducted biennially in even-numbered years and provides data on the following topics:…

The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is responsible for managing the care and custody of approximately 175,000 federal inmates--an estimated 20 percent of whom have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review BOP's efforts to provide drug treatment to federal inmates. This report (1)…

Background: Considerable attention has been focused on the impact of young people's alcohol use. To address this, schools often implement alcohol and drug education and there are many potential programmes to choose from. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify evidence-based alcohol education programmes for schools. Methods: A systematic…

Introduction: Although Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) has been one of the most commonly used prevention programmes in the United States, few evaluations have shown DARE to be an effective prevention program. DARE (or PROERD) is frequently used in Brazil as well. A central component of DARE is police officers serving as instructors. It was…

Aims: This article presents an overview of the strategies and measures used in the context of school-based prevention in Slovenia, both on a declaratory and on a practical level. Methods: A review of the Resolution on the National Programme on Drugs in the Republic of Slovenia [ReNPPD (2004). Resolucija o nacionalnem programu na podrocju drog…

Aims: To determine the impact of naloxone training on knowledge of opiate overdose and confidence and willingness to take appropriate action and to examine the use of naloxone and other harm-reduction actions at the time of overdose events. Methods: The evaluation was based on a repeated-measure design, whereby clients were tested before and after…