Salmon Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition

 We frequently tell young people to make good choices. Choose good friends. Don't drink. Don't vape. Don't use marijuana. Don't get into a vehicle with an impaired driver. Focus on school. Plan for the future. These are reasonable expectations. But prevention asks communities to consider another important question: What are we doing to make those healthy choices easier? Individual responsibility matters. Environment matters too. The Drug-Free Communities approach is built around the understanding that youth substance use is influenced by conditions within families, schools, peer groups, and communities. Community norms favorable toward substance use can increase risk, while factors such as family support, school connectedness, and policies limiting youth access can be protective. This means prevention cannot focus only on changing young people. Sometimes we need to change the environment surrounding them. Consider underage drinking. We can tell teenager...

 For many years, substance abuse prevention followed a familiar pattern. Adults gathered information. Adults developed presentations. Adults stood in front of young people and told them what they needed to know. There is still an important role for adult expertise and guidance. But modern prevention recognizes something equally important: Youth should not simply be the audience for prevention. They should help lead it. Young people understand their own generation in ways adults cannot. They know what students are talking about. They recognize emerging social media trends. They understand which messages their peers will immediately ignore. They know which activities students actually want to attend. They understand the pressures and expectations that exist within youth culture. That perspective is incredibly valuable. When communities invite youth into prevention planning, we gain better information and stronger strategies. But youth leadership accomplishes something ...

 One of the most persistent cultural messages surrounding alcohol and other substances is the idea that they are necessary for fun. Movies show parties centered around drinking. Advertisements associate alcohol with celebration. Social media can make marijuana or vaping appear connected to relaxation, humor, friendship, or belonging. Young people absorb these messages long before they are old enough to legally purchase many of these products. Positive social norms prevention offers a different message: Fun does not require substances. That sounds simple, but it is an important cultural expectation to establish. Young people need opportunities to experience social connection without alcohol, marijuana, vaping, or other drugs. That is why substance-free alternative activities are an important component of community prevention. The value of these activities goes far beyond filling a teenager's calendar. Consider what happens at a bowling night. Youth laugh. They compete. ...

 Communities are very good at noticing problems. A teenager makes a poor decision and people hear about it. A fight happens and people discuss it. A party involving alcohol gets attention. A vaping incident at school becomes a conversation. There are good reasons to address these situations. Problems cannot simply be ignored. But positive social norms prevention asks us to consider another question: Are we equally good at noticing when young people make good choices? Healthy behavior is often quiet. A student who refuses alcohol may never tell anyone. A teenager who leaves an uncomfortable party early doesn't make the news. A student who works every afternoon, completes homework, helps siblings, and stays substance-free may receive very little recognition. Yet those everyday choices are exactly the behaviors communities want to encourage. Recognition helps communicate norms. When adults publicly and privately celebrate responsibility, kindness, leadership, perseveranc...

 When people hear the phrase substance abuse prevention, they often picture information about drugs, presentations at schools, or campaigns warning about the consequences of substance use. Those efforts have value. But one of the strongest prevention strategies may sound much simpler: Help young people belong. CDC defines school connectedness as a student's sense that adults and peers at school care about them as individuals and about their learning. Students who feel connected at school are less likely to report substance use and several other health risks, and are more likely to have positive academic outcomes. Connectedness extends beyond school. Young people can experience belonging through family, friendships, sports, clubs, jobs, churches, volunteer organizations, mentoring relationships, and community activities. Every one of these relationships can become a protective factor. Adolescence is a time when belonging becomes especially important. Young people are develop...

 Young people may roll their eyes. They may answer with one word. They may appear to be paying more attention to their phones than anything an adult says. But they are listening. SAMHSA notes that parents have significant influence on children's decisions regarding alcohol and other drugs and encourages conversations before youth are exposed to those situations. That influence makes adult expectations an important part of positive social norms prevention. Children begin learning community norms long before adolescence. They observe which behaviors adults celebrate, tolerate, discourage, or ignore. Over time, those observations help answer important questions: What does my family expect? What does my school expect? What do adults in my community consider acceptable? What happens if I make a mistake? Can I ask for help? Young people need answers to those questions. One of the most valuable things adults can provide is clarity. A parent does not need a lengthy speech to...

  One of the most powerful sentences in adolescence is also one of the least reliable: “Everyone is doing it.” It can refer to drinking, vaping, marijuana, parties, relationships, social media trends, or almost anything else. For young people who are trying to determine where they belong, the belief that a behavior is widespread can create enormous pressure to participate. That is why perceptions matter in prevention. Young people do not make decisions in isolation. Their choices are influenced by families, friends, schools, social media, advertising, and the larger community. They are constantly gathering information about what behaviors appear normal and what behaviors appear accepted. Sometimes those perceptions are inaccurate. A small group engaging in highly visible behavior can create the impression that the behavior is much more common than it actually is. Social media can amplify this effect because unusual, dramatic, or risky behavior often attracts more attention th...

  When communities talk about youth substance use, conversations naturally tend to focus on problems. We discuss underage drinking, marijuana, vaping, fentanyl, impaired driving, and emerging drugs. Those conversations are important. Communities need accurate information about risks in order to respond effectively. But prevention also requires us to talk about something else: what young people are doing right. Every day, young people throughout our communities make thousands of healthy decisions that receive very little attention. They attend school. They participate in athletics. They work after-school jobs. They volunteer. They help younger siblings. They participate in 4-H, FFA, music, theater, churches, clubs, and community organizations. They make plans for college, technical training, careers, military service, and families of their own. And many choose not to use substances. Those decisions matter. Positive social norms prevention is based partly on a simple idea: what ...