2014 Year in Review – Drug-Free South Helping Youth in Tennessee

The Truth About Drugs materials provide teachers, law enforcement and community groups with effective drug education tools, and in 2014 Drug-Free South took these materials to thousands of students.

A recent study of 7th-12th-grade students revealed 10 percent of them abused over-the-counter drugs typically found in the home medicine cabinet. The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that prescription drug abuse is the country’s fastest-growing drug problem. Drugs are finding their way into the nation’s classrooms and schoolyards.

For over five years, Drug-Free South, the local chapter of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, has been working with teachers, counselors and police officers in Tennessee to stop the demand for drugs by reaching students before the dealers do. They use a series of drug education resources that work—a multimedia program that speaks to the youth of today, informing them of the truth about drugs and empowering them to make their own decisions to live drug-free.

The cornerstone of the program is a series of booklets that provide the facts about the most commonly abused drugs: marijuana, alcohol, Ecstasy, cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal meth, inhalants, heroin, LSD, prescription drugs, painkillers, and Ritalin. Next is a series of 16 award-winning “They Said, They Lied” public service announcements. They are contemporary, high-impact communications aimed directly at youth. Finally, the core of the Truth About Drugs educational program is a 100-minute documentary, The Truth About Drugs: Real People, Real Stories. The film is a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred presentation told by former users who themselves survived life-shattering addiction.

Parents and teachers can order Truth About Drugs booklets and DVDs free of charge from the drugfreeworld.org website or download the free Truth About Drugs Education Application onto their iPads or iPhones.

Drug-Free South began the year by visiting a new school in Elmwood, Tenn. There, they gave three seminars to 208 students with grades ranging from kindergarten to eighth. From there, Drug-Free South only got busier. In total, they visited seven counties and distributed over 18,000 booklets on the Truth About Drugs.  By the end of the year, volunteers for the program had traveled nearly 2,000 miles, educating students along the way.

To date, the Tennessee chapter has visited 31 counties, delivered over 240 seminars on the program, and distributed more than 60,000 booklets to those in need.

For more information on the Truth About Drugs program, or to order materials, visit drugfreesouth.org.