We talk a lot about peer pressure when we talk to young people about drugs and alcohol. Usually, the conversation focuses on what happens when someone offers a teenager a vape, a drink, marijuana, or a pill. We teach young people how to say no, how to walk away, and how to resist pressure from friends.
Those are important skills.
But what if we have been overlooking another side of peer influence?
Young people do not only influence each other to make risky decisions. They also have tremendous power to influence each other to make good ones.
That idea sits at the heart of the 2026 Red Ribbon Week theme, “Make a Difference. Be a Hero. Stay Drug Free.” Red Ribbon Week takes place October 23 through October 31 each year and remains one of the nation’s largest drug prevention campaigns. This year’s theme encourages young people to recognize that choosing a healthy, drug-free life can represent an act of courage, leadership, and positive influence.
Even better, an adult did not come up with that message.
A student did.
Ava Tackett, a student at Griswold Middle School in Connecticut, created the winning theme with guidance from her health teacher. In explaining the idea, Ava focused on how one person’s choices can influence friends and family members. Her message turns the traditional peer pressure conversation around. Instead of asking only, “How can I resist someone else’s influence?” it asks young people another question:
“How can I be a positive influence on someone else?”
That is a powerful question for prevention education.
It also reflects something we know about adolescence. Friends matter enormously during the teenage years. Young people look to their peers for cues about what is normal, acceptable, popular, and worth trying. That influence can create risk, but it can also create protection.
If one teenager says, “Come on, everybody is doing it,” that can influence a decision.
But so can the friend who says, “No thanks. I’m good.”
So can the student who offers to leave a party with a friend who feels uncomfortable.
So can the teenager who refuses to get into a vehicle with someone who has been drinking or using marijuana.
So can the teammate who checks on someone who seems to be struggling.
So can the friend who says, “I think we should tell somebody.”
Those choices may not look heroic in the traditional sense. Nobody wears a cape. Nobody gets a trophy.
But sometimes leadership looks exactly like that.
The Good News About Youth Substance Use
Red Ribbon Week gives us an important opportunity to start with something young people do not hear often enough: most teenagers are making healthier choices than many people assume.
Youth substance use has declined substantially in several important categories over the past decade. That matters because teenagers frequently overestimate how much their peers drink, vape, or use drugs. When young people believe risky behavior is normal, they may feel pressure to participate simply because they want to belong.
Accurate information can change that perception.
Recent federal data shows encouraging progress in youth tobacco use. According to the 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey from the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 7.2 percent of U.S. middle and high school students reported currently using any tobacco product. That represents about 2 million students.
E-cigarettes remained the most commonly used tobacco product among young people, with about 1.44 million middle and high school students reporting current use in 2025. However, youth e-cigarette use has fallen dramatically from its peak. In 2019, approximately 5.38 million middle and high school students reported current e-cigarette use. By 2024, that number had fallen to 1.63 million.
That represents roughly a 70 percent decline.
This is what prevention progress looks like.
It does not mean we declare victory. More than a million young people currently vaping still represents a serious concern, particularly because nicotine can create addiction and affect the developing adolescent brain.
But it does mean we should stop telling teenagers that substance use is inevitable.
It is not.
Most young people are not vaping. Most are not regularly drinking alcohol. Most are not using illicit drugs.
When we communicate that accurately, we give young people permission to see healthy choices as normal rather than unusual.
Peer Pressure Works Both Ways
Adults sometimes underestimate how much young people influence each other because we imagine peer pressure as something obvious.
Real peer influence often looks much more subtle.
Nobody has to stand in a circle chanting, “Do it!”
A teenager may simply notice what everyone else appears to be doing. Someone pulls out a vape and nobody reacts. Someone talks casually about getting high over the weekend. Social media feeds fill with jokes about marijuana or drinking. A friend describes using a substance without mentioning any negative consequences.
Gradually, a young person can develop the impression that a behavior is normal.
That perception matters because teenagers are highly attuned to social acceptance. Adolescence represents a developmental stage when young people naturally become more independent from parents and increasingly connected to peers. They begin developing identities outside their families and testing where they belong.
That process is healthy.
But it also means social information carries tremendous weight.
This is why positive peer influence deserves a larger role in prevention.
Imagine the difference between walking into a group where everyone appears comfortable vaping and walking into one where nobody does.
Imagine the difference between being the only person declining alcohol and having two friends decline with you.
Imagine knowing before a party that your closest friend has already agreed to stay sober too.
The decision becomes easier.
Young people can create that environment for one another.
Sometimes Being the Leader Feels Uncomfortable
The word “hero” can sound big. Red Ribbon Week’s 2026 theme intentionally brings that idea down to everyday decisions.
Being a positive influence does not require giving speeches about drugs.
Sometimes it simply requires being comfortable with your own decision.
That can be harder than it sounds.
Picture a high school student standing at a party when someone offers them alcohol. They may know they do not want it. They may know their parents would be disappointed. They may know they have practice the next morning.
But none of those thoughts completely eliminate the social pressure of the moment.
They still have to say no in front of other people.
That requires confidence.
Now imagine that another friend immediately says, “I’m not drinking either.”
Suddenly the social dynamic changes.
That is positive peer influence.
The same thing can happen with vaping, marijuana, prescription drugs, or risky driving. One person’s decision can give someone else permission to make the choice they already wanted to make.
Young people need to understand the influence they carry.
The Products Change, But Prevention Still Matters
Today’s teenagers also face a substance landscape that looks very different from the one their parents experienced.
Vaping provides one clear example.
E-cigarettes can look more like technology products than traditional tobacco. Devices may be small, colorful, disposable, and easy to conceal. Flavors can make them feel less threatening.
The 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that nearly 90 percent of current youth e-cigarette users reported using flavored products. More than half reported using products with “ice” or “iced” in the flavor name.
Frequency also matters. More than one in four young people who currently used e-cigarettes reported using them every day. More than four in ten reported vaping on at least 20 of the previous 30 days.
Those numbers show how quickly experimentation can turn into a pattern.
Nicotine pouches have also become part of the youth substance conversation. About 460,000 students reported currently using nicotine pouches in 2025. While overall prevalence remained relatively low, more than 90 percent of youth pouch users reported using flavored products.
Products evolve. Marketing changes. Social trends change.
The basic prevention challenge remains the same.
Young people need accurate information before someone puts a product in their hand.
Mental Health Belongs in the Conversation
Prevention also requires us to look beyond the substance itself.
Sometimes adults ask, “Why would a teenager start vaping when they know nicotine is addictive?”
The better question may be, “What does vaping do for that teenager?”
Maybe it gives them social connection.
Maybe it helps them feel included.
Maybe they believe it helps them manage stress.
Maybe they use nicotine when they feel anxious.
Recent CDC research found an important relationship between youth e-cigarette use and mental health symptoms. In 2024, about 42 percent of students who currently used e-cigarettes reported moderate to severe symptoms of depression or anxiety. Among students who did not currently vape, approximately 21 percent reported those symptoms.
That does not mean vaping necessarily causes depression or anxiety, or that depression and anxiety automatically cause vaping. The relationship is complex.
But it tells us something important.
We cannot build effective substance use prevention without also talking about mental health, stress, coping, and connection.
If a teenager uses nicotine because they feel anxious, simply telling them to stop vaping does not address the anxiety.
If a student drinks because they feel socially uncomfortable, telling them alcohol is dangerous does not teach them how to navigate social situations.
If a young person uses marijuana to escape overwhelming emotions, they need healthier coping strategies, not just warnings about marijuana.
Prevention education must help young people understand what drives their decisions.
Being a Hero Can Mean Asking for Help
Positive influence also means recognizing when a friend needs more help than another teenager can provide.
Young people often tell friends things they do not tell adults.
That trust matters, but it can also place teenagers in difficult situations. A friend may admit they are using substances regularly. They may say they cannot stop vaping. They may talk about taking pills. They may reveal depression, anxiety, problems at home, or thoughts that scare the person listening.
Young people need permission to understand that being a good friend does not always mean keeping a secret.
Sometimes helping someone means involving a trusted adult.
That can feel like betrayal, especially to a teenager.
It can also save a life.
This is another place where the 2026 Red Ribbon Week message becomes meaningful. Heroes help each other. Sometimes that means standing beside someone. Sometimes it means listening. Sometimes it means finding someone better equipped to help.
Young people should never feel responsible for treating a friend’s addiction or mental health crisis on their own.
They can care without carrying the entire problem.
Adults Still Matter
Celebrating youth leadership does not mean adults get to step away.
Quite the opposite.
Parents, teachers, coaches, counselors, prevention professionals, and other trusted adults create the environment where positive peer influence can grow.
Adults can begin by listening.
Teenagers hear plenty of instructions. They hear what they should do, what they should not do, and what adults think about their generation.
They also need opportunities to talk.
Ask what they see happening among their peers.
Ask what substances concern them.
Ask what they see online.
Ask what they think adults misunderstand.
Ask what makes saying no difficult.
Then listen to the answer before delivering the lesson.
Young people live inside youth culture every day. They often understand emerging trends before adults even know they exist.
That perspective makes them valuable partners in prevention.
Prevention Education Works
We should also recognize that prevention efforts produce measurable results.
In 2025, FDA researchers reported that the agency’s “The Real Cost” youth e-cigarette prevention campaign prevented an estimated 444,000 young people from starting e-cigarette use between 2023 and 2024.
Nearly half a million young people.
That finding reinforces something central to Road Radio USA’s mission: education can change behavior.
The right message, delivered in a way that connects with young people, can influence the decision that comes later.
We may never know which conversation mattered.
Maybe a student remembers something they heard during a school program six months earlier.
Maybe they remember someone else’s story.
Maybe a friend says something at exactly the right moment.
Maybe they simply know enough about the risk to decide it is not worth it.
That is prevention.
Its greatest successes often happen quietly.
Make a Difference
Red Ribbon Week began decades ago as a visible statement against the destruction caused by drugs. Today, its message continues to evolve alongside the challenges young people face.
The 2026 theme gives us an especially useful way to think about prevention.
“Make a Difference. Be a Hero. Stay Drug Free.”
It does not position young people as problems adults need to fix.
It positions them as part of the solution.
That distinction matters.
Young people have influence.
They influence what becomes popular. They influence what their friends consider normal. They influence conversations, social groups, teams, classrooms, and online communities.
We should help them understand how powerful that influence can be.
At Road Radio USA, we believe prevention education should do more than tell young people which substances to avoid. It should prepare them for the moments when the right choice feels harder than the easy one.
It should give them accurate information.
It should help them recognize pressure.
It should teach them how to think beyond the moment.
It should remind them that asking for help is always an option.
Most importantly, it should help them believe they have the ability to make their own decisions.
Because sometimes leadership looks surprisingly ordinary.
It looks like saying, “No thanks.”
It looks like handing the keys to someone sober.
It looks like checking on a friend.
It looks like refusing to pass along a vape.
It looks like leaving a situation that does not feel safe.
It looks like telling an adult when someone needs help.
And sometimes it simply looks like making a healthy choice confidently enough that someone else realizes they can make the same one.
That is how young people change culture.
That is how prevention grows from one conversation into something bigger.
And this Red Ribbon Week, that is a kind of heroism worth celebrating.