Stanford Medicine’s REACH Lab adopted our curriculum

Dear Friend,

We are excited to share with you that Stanford Medicine’s REACH Lab will be the new home for Safety First, the nation’s first harm reduction-based drug education curriculum for teens. You can now find the curriculum and all its resources on Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab site: [link removed]

DPA is proud to have created this groundbreaking curriculum. For the past year we’ve been searching for the right collaborator to take Safety First to the next level. Our vision is that every young person has access to honest, science-based, non-stigmatizing drug education. To get there, we knew Safety First needed to be in the hands of an organization or university that specialized in developing and evaluating drug education curricula. It was also critical that this new home embrace and uphold the core harm reduction approach that makes Safety First so distinct. We believe we’ve found that collaborator in Stanford Medicine’s REACH Lab.

Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab, which is hosted within Stanford’s Division of Adolescent Medicine and run by Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, the Marron and Mary Elizabeth Kendrick Professor in Pediatrics II, is nationally known for their research on adolescent decision-making and substance use as well as their internationally-used Tobacco [link removed] and Cannabis [link removed] Prevention Toolkits. All of their drug education curricula are developed with participation from their Youth Action Board, a process that mimics one that DPA used in the creation of Safety First. At DPA, we consulted young people and teachers on the Safety First curriculum content. It is also aligned with National Health Education Standards and Common Core State Standards.

When we first developed Safety First we had no idea the impact it would have. It’s been downloaded over 9,000 times since its public launch in 2019. An independent evaluation in 2018 and 2019 showed that Safety First:

--Increased student knowledge of harm reduction

--Increased student knowledge of drug knowledge regarding alcohol, cannabis and opioids

--Increased student knowledge of how to detect and respond to a drug-related overdose

Latest studies show that teen drug use is low, but overdose deaths are rising. This is due to an unregulated supply. It’s critical that educators are teaching young people fact-based drug education that can keep them safer.

Safety First will remain free for all to use. In the coming months and years, we expect Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab to develop teacher trainings, update the content so it stays current with new drug research, and to conduct more evaluations of the curriculum. We hope you will continue your support of harm reduction drug education and let others know about Safety First’s new home at Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab.

In solidarity,

Kassandra Frederique
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance


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