EDITORIAL: Reaching teenagers about drug use through their peers

Programs designed to discourage kids from using drugs date back decades. Among the more prominent efforts are DARE —Drug Abuse Resistance Education — once offered by police departments across the country and first lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign during the 1980s.

The efficacy of such educational programs has long been in question, given that the federal government has spent billions on anti-drug messaging targeting kids. In recent years, however, there has been a downturn in teenage drug use, with the exception of marijuana. According to the National Institute on Drug Use, 2019 surveys reveal promising trends when it comes to youngsters avoiding cocaine, opioids and methamphetamine.

For too many families, though, the pain of losing a loved one to addiction remains a lifetime tragedy. That’s why David and Jackie Siegel started the Victoria’s Voice Foundation after their 18-year-old daughter died in 2015 due to a drug overdose. The foundation is now partnering with the Drug Enforcement Administration on a new program in Clark County designed to encourage kids to reach out to their peers to discourage the use of illegal substances.

The Truth Not Talk campaign encourages high school students to produce 60-second videos pointing out the dangers of drug use. It then works with social media influencers to promote the message. Those who participate are eligible to win prizes from sponsors, including the Raiders and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“I can sit here all day long and say how bad drugs are,” said Dan Neill, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in Nevada, “but it’s guys like this who can really get that message out because kids listen to kids. The whole thing is to get kids engaged, and this is the best way to do that because this is how kids communicate now.”

Peer pressure is a powerful tool that often supersedes rote lectures from parents and authority figures about the pitfalls of various teen behaviors. Youth is wasted on the young, as they say. A certain amount of teen rebellion and experimentation is inevitable and healthy. But it’s just as important that kids know there can be consequences to risky behaviors and that drug use has the potential to hinder their long-term development and advancement. The more they hear such a message from those their own age, the more likely they are to take notice.

“I know that she’d be proud and excited about all the lives saved by our foundation,” Ms. Siegel said about her daughter. Indeed. Let’s hope the Truth Not Talk campaign succeeds at reducing the number of Clark County families forced to endure the eternal pain of losing a child to drug abuse.