We know today that addiction is a life-threatening disease. We also know that successful disease prevention requires extensive research. We can’t prevent mental illness or covid-19 on a hunch and a prayer. When it comes to substance abuse prevention, we may have learned this the hard way. The first prevention program in America was built on the idea that we can build resilience in

I could not have imagined the breadth of knowledge and insight that students would offer me when I chose to start speaking at LSIS. I thought I would be presenting to groups of children who had never truly considered the consequences of drugs and poor coping methods. I thought they would be asking me what I meant by ADHD, anxiety, or coping methods. I thought they would be a little

I’d love to believe that when I tell my story to students, I am invariably preaching to the choir. It feels this way when we are at an elementary school, and all the kids gasp at my past decisions. There are many wonderfully encouraging conversations with these children. How we wish that were the whole story. It would be a great feeling to know we’d worked ourselves out of a job he