​The Invisible Middle: What Drug Education Misses About Real Life

​Every October, millions of Americans participate in Red Ribbon Week, the nation's largest and longest-running drug prevention awareness campaign. Established nationally in 1988, it has spent nearly four decades encouraging young people to live drug-free lives.

​Yet decades of abstinence-centered prevention messaging have failed to adequately address the realities of youth substance use. The vast majority of schools continue to rely on abstinence-only drug education, despite decades of evidence demonstrating its limitations. Meanwhile, drug-related deaths have remained the leading cause of death among Americans under 50 for years.

​After nearly 40 years, isn't it time to reconsider what we're teaching?

​Schools are required to teach drug education, but too often the conversation begins and ends with abstinence and addiction.

​Missing is everything in between: the questions young people are asking, the decisions they're navigating, and the practical knowledge they need to stay safe.

​That's the invisible middle. And it's time for schools to address it.

​Join Sasha Simon, MPH, founder of Teach Substance, for a practical conversation about what traditional drug education gets wrong, what more effective approaches look like, and what it takes to transition schools toward harm reduction-based education.

​What you'll learn

• ​The invisible middle: What abstinence-only drug education misses about young people's real experiences.

• ​What actually works: The principles behind realistic, evidence-informed, harm reduction-based education.

• ​Why change is difficult: How school policies, teacher readiness, administrative priorities, staffing, and parent concerns affect implementation.

• ​Where to start: How to identify your school's barriers, explore existing resources, and develop a realistic path forward.

​Who should attend?

​School and district administrators, health educators, counselors, curriculum leaders, youth-serving organizations, parents, students, and anyone working to improve drug education for young people.

​Whether you're exploring harm reduction for the first time, trying to implement it in your school, a curious nerd who loves learning new things, or someone who's been quietly questioning conventional wisdom but hasn't quite known where to start, this conversation is for you.

​Exclusive opportunity for live attendees ✨

​Five complimentary, 75-minute School Drug Education Strategy Sessions

​Five school teams will have the opportunity to work directly with Sasha to assess their current approach, identify implementation barriers, and map practical next steps toward harm reduction-based drug education.

​Additional school teams may be invited from a waitlist.

​About your host

​Sasha Simon, MPH

​is the founder of Teach Substance, an AI-enabled drug education company, and a former New York City high school health teacher and college health professor.

​At the Drug Policy Alliance, Sasha led the development of Safety First, the nation's first and most widely used harm reduction-based drug education curriculum for high school students. The curriculum is now housed at Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab and reaches hundreds of thousands of young people.

​Her work spans classroom instruction, curriculum development, professional development, research, education policy, and school implementation, and has been featured in publications such as Teen Vogue, Education Week, PBS LearningMedia, and US News & World Report.

​She helped build the alternative to abstinence-only drug education. Now she's helping schools make the transition.

​Free to attend | Live Q&A | Limited strategy sessions

​Want to start asking better questions about drug education?

​Explore INQUIRE, our free guide to rethinking the conversations we have about drugs, safety, and young people.

​It's a great place to start. Join us Thursday to take the conversation further.