www.campusdrugprevention.gov – Celebrating Seven Years!
www.campusdrugprevention.gov – Celebrating Seven Years!
-Richard Lucey, Jr.
Where does the time go? How often have you said that, or heard someone else say it? It’s hard to believe www.campusdrugprevention.gov has been around for seven years, but it’s true. From the moment it was conceived in the fall of 2016 to its launch in July 2017, DEA’s website for professionals working to prevent drug use and misuse among college students is going strong. And now seems like the ideal time to tell you about what’s new on the website and what’s coming soon.
Earlier this year, DEA published its 2024 edition of Prevention with Purpose: A Strategic Planning Guide for Preventing Drug Misuse Among College Students. In addition to the data refresh throughout the guide, the updated publication also features the following:
- Profiles highlighting real-life stories from campus prevention professionals focused on a unique or innovative approach to the Strategic Prevention Framework;
- Ideas for building considerations of cultural factors into each step of the Strategic Prevention Framework, and
- Five strategies for prevention success during times of disruption to campus life, such as an outbreak of disease, on-campus tragedies, and severe weather.
Earlier this month, DEA published its latest supplemental resource to Prevention with Purpose. This brief publication focuses on preventing substance use among college student-athletes, and the role campus-based prevention staff can play in ensuring that student-athletes do not turn to substance use when the going gets tough. The supplement provides an overview of risk and protective factors student-athletes face, and action steps that administrators, athletic directors, coaches, and others within the athletic department can take to be partners in the campus’s prevention work.
Later this year, DEA will publish updated versions of its three fact cards related to preventing marijuana use, prescription drug misuse, and impaired driving among college students.
One of the most urgent and high-profile topics that remains on DEA’s radar is the danger surrounding illicit fentanyl and fake pills, which is why we issued another Public Safety Alert in November 2022 to alert the public of a sharp nationwide increase in the lethality of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills. DEA laboratories have found that, of the fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills it’s analyzed, seven out of 10 now contain at least two milligrams of fentanyl, which is an amount considered to be a lethal dose. DEA is pleased that colleges and universities around the nation have adopted DEA’s One Pill Can Kill awareness campaign in an effort to educate their student populations. You can learn about these efforts at www.campusdrugprevention.gov/onepill.
In addition to these resources, www.campusdrugprevention.gov continues to feature Prevention Profiles: Take Five, our award-winning podcast series highlighting current and emerging issues in preventing drug use among college students, and Views from the Field, which are guest articles offering various perspectives about drug use prevention in higher education.
DEA continues to work in tandem with its partners, whether cosponsoring its annual Red Ribbon Week Campus Video PSA Contest with the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, collaborating with NASPA—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education on its annual Strategies Conference, or working with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administration to promote National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
DEA welcomes your input on www.campusdrugprevention.gov, so if there is content or features you would like us to consider including on it, submit your comments to community.outreach@dea.gov.
Drug use and its related negative consequences among college students continue to be prevalent and demand our attention. DEA looks forward to continue collaborating with its various partners and providing you with the resources you need to help support your work on campus and in the surrounding community. The safety and health of our nation’s college students depend on it.
Rich Lucey is a senior prevention program manager in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Community Outreach and Prevention Support Section. Rich plans and executes educational and public information programs, evaluates program goals and outcomes, and serves as an advisor to the Section Chief and other DEA officials on drug misuse prevention and education programs. Rich formerly served as special assistant to the director for the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and worked as an education program specialist in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.