Keywords
Children--Substance use--Prevention, Students--Substance use--Prevention.
Abstract
How can we lower Oregon’s youth substance use disorder (SUD) and overdose rates? Oregon is third in the country for SUD, with 5.77% of adolescents (12-17) having documented SUD. Some claim that it is because of the decriminalization of drugs, like Senator Art Robinson, but another reason relies on how we are educating Oregon youth. Oregon education standards outline requirements for drug and alcohol education as well as Senate Bill 238. By analyzing school districts current prevention programs in high overdose-rate counties (Multnomah, Lane, and Josephine) and low overdose-rate counties (Washington, Yamhill, Linn, Deschutes, Marion, and Clackamas), a lack of quality of education and resources was found. Due to this, a new standard of operations needs to be created that incorporates science-backed education, mental health services, life-skill development, and the creation of an oversight committee. Bardach’s Eightfold Path was used to develop this policy outline having three different outcome options: low (no change), medium (education change), and high (education and resource change), each evaluated on three parts of William Dunn’s evaluative criteria. The strongly preferred option for Oregon schools is the highest prevention measure due to it having the greatest impact on Oregon’s youth futures and current SUD epidemic.
Publication Date
June 2025
DOI
10.15760/hgjpa.2025.9.1.9
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43706
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Swain, Sophia R.
(2025)
"Is Education Regulation the Solution to Help Lower Substance Use Rates and Substance Use Disorder in Oregon Youth?,"
Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs:
Vol. 9:
Iss.
1, Article 9.
https://doi.org/10.15760/hgjpa.2025.9.1.9
