On Monday, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) announced the launching of the National Drug Facts Week, according to a feature on the website of the National Institutes of Health. National Drug Facts Week will serve as a way to bring teenagers and scientific experts together in order to talk about drug abuse. It is an expansion of the online Drug Facts Day previously conducted by NIDA.
NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow was quoted in the feature: “What we learned through our annual Web chat is that teens have many questions about drug use and are eager for objective, factual answers, so we wanted to build a series of events where teens could ask scientists their questions directly.”
National Drug Facts Week will encourage the conduct of community-based question and answer events participated in by teenagers and scientists. Schools, community groups, hospitals and various youth-oriented clubs can serve as the sponsors of these events. Those interested in organizing such events can ask NIDA for an online toolkit that will provide teenagers and their sponsoring organizations information regarding: “how to create an event, how to publicize the event, how to find a scientific expert and where to find scientific information on drugs.”
This new awareness week is supported by the following federal agencies: the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in HHS, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at NIH, the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the U.S. Department of Justice, and the National Guard, part of the U.S. Department of Defense.
National Drug Facts week will begin on November 8.
Tags: Drug Facts, National Drug Facts Week, NIDA drug awareness, teen drug facts
