The red ribbons on school fences this month are easy to walk past. They are also a good opening for a conversation about drugs and alcohol that many families keep putting off.
Every October, schools from Union County to the Merrimack Valley hand out red ribbons, hold spirit days, and send home flyers about saying no to drugs. A lot of parents skim the flyer and move on. The kids often do the same.
That is a missed chance. October is National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, increasingly called Substance Use Prevention Month to match person-first language, and Red Ribbon Week runs from October 23 to 31. Prevention is not only a school assembly. It happens at kitchen tables, in medicine cabinets, in the car on the way to practice, and in how adults handle their own drinking. Serenity at Summit treats adults in medical detox and residential care in Union, New Jersey and Haverhill, Massachusetts, and the families who call often say they wish someone had started these conversations years earlier.
What Prevention Month and Red Ribbon Week Are
National Substance Abuse Prevention Month is an annual federal observance focused on keeping substance use from starting and keeping early use from becoming a disorder. Red Ribbon Week grew out of a community response in the 1980s, after the killing of federal drug agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, when parents and students began wearing red ribbons as a pledge to live drug-free.
The research behind prevention points to everyday habits more than slogans: steady adult involvement, honest information, fewer easy opportunities to use, and early help when something starts to go wrong.
Why the Teenage Years Matter So Much
The National Institute on Drug Abuse explains that the brain keeps developing into adulthood and changes dramatically during adolescence. One of the last areas to mature is the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that weighs consequences, makes decisions, and keeps impulses in check. That is one reason teens take more risks, and one reason substances can do more lasting harm at that age.
NIDA also notes that early use is a strong indicator of problems ahead, including addiction, and that genes account for an estimated 40 to 60 percent of a person’s risk. Family history does not decide anyone’s future, but it is a reason to start these conversations earlier and to keep them going.
Risk Factors and Protective Factors
NIDA lists factors that raise or lower a young person’s risk. Families have real influence over several of them.
- Parental monitoring and support: Knowing where a teen is, who they are with, and what is going on in their life is one of the strongest protective factors. Its absence is one of the clearest risks.
- Refusal skills: Teens with practiced ways to turn down an offer are less exposed to peer pressure.
- Positive relationships: A coach, teacher, grandparent, or older cousin who checks in can matter as much as a parent.
- School and community: Engagement with school, clear school policies, and neighborhood resources all lower risk, while easy availability of drugs raises it.
- Self-control: Believing you can manage your own impulses, a trait called self-efficacy, is protective and can be built with practice.
What Families Can Do This Week
Prevention conversations go better when they are short, specific, and repeated, rather than one big talk that everyone dreads.
- Ask before you tell: “What have you heard about vapes at school?” opens more doors than a lecture. Listening first shows a teen that the conversation is safe to return to.
- Talk about the pills, not just the parties: NIDA warns that some counterfeit pills, made to look like prescription pain, anxiety, or ADHD medication and often sold through social media, contain fentanyl. As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl, about the size of a few grains of salt, can be fatal. A teen who would never use heroin might take a pill from a friend.
- Lock up the medicine cabinet: Leftover opioid painkillers, stimulants, and sedatives are a common first source of misuse. Count them, lock them, and dispose of what is no longer needed, since prescription drug misuse often starts with pills that were never meant for the person taking them.
- Plan for Halloween night: Red Ribbon Week ends on October 31, a night of parties for many teens. Agree on a check-in time and a no-questions-asked ride home.
- Look at your own habits: Children notice how adults use alcohol to cope. Saying “I’ve had a hard day, I’m going for a walk” shows children a way to cope that does not involve a drink.
For the harder conversations, practical scripts for talking with teens about marijuana and explaining addiction to kids can help a parent find words that fit their family.
Prevention Does Not Stop at 18
Most prevention campaigns are aimed at middle and high schools, but risk does not disappear at graduation. The jump to college, a first job, or living alone removes the daily structure that kept use in check, which is why young adults need prevention aimed at them, too.
For adults, prevention often means noticing early. Drinking that has crept from weekends to weeknights, a prescription that runs out early every month, or needing a drink to sleep are all signs worth taking seriously before they harden into a substance use disorder, a medical condition in which a person keeps using despite harm to their health, work, or relationships. At that stage, a conversation with a primary care doctor or a counselor can catch the problem early.
Overdose Prevention Is Prevention Too
Keeping someone alive is the most basic form of prevention. Naloxone is a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. NIDA notes it comes as a ready-to-use nasal spray as well as an injection, and that anyone carrying it should learn how and when to use it. Keeping it at home is a reasonable step for any family where someone uses opioids, takes prescription painkillers, or might come into contact with counterfeit pills.
- New Jersey: Through the state’s Stop Overdoses program, anyone 14 or older can get naloxone anonymously and at no cost at participating pharmacies, and free community naloxone trainings are offered in all three regions of the state. ReachNJ, the state addiction help line at 844-ReachNJ (844-732-2465), connects people with substance use disorders and their families to support.
- Massachusetts: The Bureau of Substance Addiction Services within the Department of Public Health oversees the state’s prevention, treatment, and recovery services, and its pages include naloxone FAQs and substance use prevention information for parents, for residents from Boston to the Merrimack Valley.
- Anywhere in the U.S.: SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) is free and confidential, and offers treatment referrals and information.
The fentanyl risks families should know about are worth revisiting this month, too. If someone is unresponsive or not breathing, call 911 first.
When Prevention Is No Longer Enough
Some families reading about prevention this month are already past it. A son is drinking every day, a wife’s prescription has turned into something else, a parent is mixing pills and alcohol. When that happens, the next step is an assessment, and for many people it is medically supervised detox, because withdrawal from alcohol, benzodiazepines, and opioids can be dangerous or unbearable without medical care.
Serenity at Summit provides medically monitored inpatient detox at ASAM Level 3.7 and residential treatment for adults, with medication-assisted treatment where it fits and a family program so relatives learn alongside the person in care. The Union campus serves North Jersey from near the Garden State Parkway and the NJ Turnpike, and the Haverhill campus serves Essex County and southern New Hampshire from just off Interstate 495.
Talk With Serenity at Summit About Next Steps
Red Ribbon Week is about keeping problems from starting. If the problem in your home has already started, the most useful thing this month can be a phone call that ends with a plan. The admissions team can talk through what is happening, which level of care fits, and what insurance may cover, whether the person struggling is you or a family member who is not ready to call. Reach the Serenity at Summit admissions team or begin with a confidential insurance verification.
Frequently Asked Questions About Substance Use Prevention Month in NJ & MA
Red Ribbon Week runs from October 23 to 31 each year, during National Substance Abuse Prevention Month in October. Schools and communities use the week for drug prevention events, and many families tie a red ribbon on a mailbox, door, or car as a visible pledge. It is also a natural opening for a short conversation at home about drugs, alcohol, and counterfeit pills.
Earlier than most expect, in age-appropriate terms. Young children can learn that medicine is only taken from a trusted adult. Preteens can hear about vaping, alcohol, and peer pressure. Teens need specific information, including the risk that pills bought from friends or online may contain fentanyl. Short, repeated conversations work better than a single big talk.
In New Jersey, anyone 14 or older can get naloxone anonymously and at no cost at participating pharmacies through the state’s Stop Overdoses program. In Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services publishes naloxone FAQs and overdose prevention information. Pharmacists in both states can explain how to use it, and keeping it at home is a sensible precaution.
Sources
- National Family Partnership. (n.d.). About Red Ribbon. Retrieved from: https://www.redribbon.org/about. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse. (n.d.). Drug misuse and addiction. Retrieved from: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/drug-misuse-addiction. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse. (n.d.). Fentanyl. Retrieved from: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/fentanyl. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse. (n.d.). Naloxone DrugFacts. Retrieved from: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/naloxone. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
- New Jersey Department of Human Services. (n.d.). Stop Overdoses NJ. Retrieved from: https://nj.gov/humanservices/stopoverdoses/. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Public Health. (n.d.). Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. Retrieved from: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/bureau-of-substance-addiction-services. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (n.d.). SAMHSA’s national helpline. Retrieved from: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/helplines/national-helpline. Accessed on October 18, 2026.
