Red Ribbon Week – Talking to Kids About Drugs and Choices
As October turns toward its final week, schools and families across the country prepare for Red Ribbon Week from October 23 through 31. This long-standing campaign – now the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention effort – urges us to talk early, talk honestly, and take action as a community to help our kids make safe and healthy choices.
Red Ribbon Week began in 1985 following the tragic death of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. In the wake of his loss, friends and community members placed red ribbons in his memory and formed Camarena Clubs to encourage drug-free living. That grassroots twist of hope and commitment grew into a nationally recognized symbol of youth voice and education against substance use.
Today, every year roughly eighty million people take part in Red Ribbon Week activities across schools, workplaces, faith communities, and civic organizations. Themes like 2024’s “Life is a Movie, Film Drug Free” remind us that everyone shares responsibility for nurturing safe and drug-free environments.
Why does a week like this matter so much?
Because open, ongoing conversations and visible community support are powerful tools – and they work. The teen brain continues to develop well into the mid-twenties, with reward circuits still forming and impulse control still a work in progress. That makes our young people especially vulnerable to peer pressure, risk-taking, and experimentation .
Truth is, most kids do not start with illicit drugs. By high school, though, nearly 70 percent will have tried alcohol and half might have used illegal drugs or misused prescription medication. Conversations that begin early, even at age 9 or 10, can shift that trajectory.
Our job as parents, educators, youth leaders, and community members is not to lecture or scare. Research shows that scare tactics and zero tolerance alone do not work long term. Instead, effective prevention is layered.
Young people are much more likely to listen when they feel heard and trusted. Having short, regular conversations works better than that one big “talk.” You can start on the walk home from school, during snack time, or while driving. Staying calm, listening carefully, and connecting those moments to values like health, dreams, and friendship set the tone.
Parents can show they disapprove of drug misuse but still care deeply about a child’s success and safety. Being a trusted source of accurate information, staying involved in a teen’s life, and equipping them with strategies to say no all contribute to stronger protection .
Schools and youth programs play a key role too. Evidence shows that interactive prevention programs that teach refusal and social skills perform much better than didactic lectures. These might include role playing, guided peer discussion, or creative expression . Programs that incorporate mindfulness and stress reduction are becoming more common and help teens manage emotion before risky impulses take hold.
Community engagement turns messages into movements.
During Red Ribbon Week:
- Families can decorate entrances with red ribbons or hold storytelling events that honor healthy decisions.
- Faith groups and community centers can weave drug education into sermons, newsletters, and youth gatherings with compassion and care.
- Law enforcement and school partnerships can arrange assemblies, provide tool kits, or host interactive media campaigns. Some communities light up buildings and bridges in red to build visibility and solidarity.
This kind of inclusive action matters because teens are paying attention. Peer-led prevention is increasingly effective. When students like Eli Myers and Kyle Santoro – after losing classmates to fentanyl overdoses – create films such as “Fentanyl High” to spark schoolwide discussions, they meet peers in their language and their truth. That kind of empathy, not condemnation, moves hearts .
That story is especially urgent now. Even as general teen drug use has dropped to historic lows, overdose deaths among adolescents are rising. Many of those tragedies stem from counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl is cheap, potent, and often hidden in pills teens think are safe. Rejecting myths and sharing real information without shame is essential .
For parents, educators, and mentors, there are steps we can take right now:
- Start conversations early and often. Make them normal.
- Be clear but caring. Avoid preaching and shaming.
- Listen more than you talk. Your empathy matters.
- Share facts and stories that are current, age-appropriate, and from trusted sources.
- Engage schools in active prevention workshops, mindful programming, or peer-led forums.
- Partner with local law enforcement for respectful awareness events and school visits – not arrest records, but conversation bridges.
- Invite youth to create awareness through art, film, social media, or spoken word. Make them authors of the message.
- Support community members in recovery as advocates and mentors, reinforcing that healing and hope go hand in hand.
This Red Ribbon Week, Road Radio USA challenges our communities to make connection more visible than fear, to make prevention personal, and to reclaim our shared future, one conversation at a time.
If you are wondering where to begin, try something small. Invite youth to share what they think Red Ribbon Week means. Host a listening circle at school or community center where the only rule is honesty. Let students lead with questions – what are they hearing? What do they want to know? Encourage them to ask, “What’s really going on out there?” and hold safe space for their answers.
That way, Red Ribbon Week becomes more than a campaign. It becomes a chapter of belonging. A week that celebrates possibilities instead of policing. A reminder that the strongest antidote to drug harm is real, caring connection focused on our young people.
As October ends, don’t let the conversation end with the ribbons. Let it continue as a part of everyday life. When teens say no under pressure, when someone reaches out because they are struggling, when a parent checks in again, that is the beginning of prevention in action. That is how communities choose paths and help our youth solve the puzzle of life drug free