Addressing Substance Use Disorder as a Pediatric-Onset, Communicable Disease: Implications for Youth Substance Use Prevention

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a pediatric-onset disease, with 9 in 10 adults with SUD having initiated use before age 18. The earlier and the heavier the onset of use, the more likely a young person will subsequently develop a SUD. SUD can be also be categorized as a communicable disease, spread through social interactions among individuals who use substances.

This session will detail the communicable disease model for SUD and emphasize the importance of protecting the uniquely vulnerable adolescent brain from substance use. Data will be presented from two national surveys of youth substance use behaviors that show that for teens, the use of any one drug dramatically increases the likelihood of using others. Equally important, the percentage of American youth who have never in their lives used any drug has increased from only 3% in 1983 to 36% today. Even greater numbers refrain from past month substance use, increasing from 16% in 1983 to 64% today. These two key findings support the reframing of the primary goal of youth substance use prevention as One Choice: no use of any alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opioids, or other drugs by youth under age 21 for reasons of health. Presenters will highlight the experiences of teen leaders in youth prevention and share examples of how prevention organizations from across the United States are integrating the One Choice message into widely varied, established prevention programming with youth peer-to-peer positive social norm campaigns and community-wide education initiatives.