Contra Costa County Office of Education

 

The Smart Talk curriculum is a component of the Stanford Cannabis Awareness & Prevention Toolkit. This five-lesson, theory-based, and evidence-informed curriculum is designed to address key factors contributing to youth cannabis use. Each lesson focuses on enhancing students’ ability to resist marketing and social media influences, while also promoting healthy coping strategies. The curriculum aims to reduce stress and symptoms of depression—both of which are linked to cannabis initiation—and to strengthen refusal skills, ultimately decreasing both the intention to use and actual use of cannabis products.

 

The curriculum, which is made up of lessons on alcohol, opioids/fentanyl, and other drugs, encourages youth to abstain from use, but this curriculum also includes clear harm reduction messages for youth who are experimenting or using, to provide high school students with scientifically accurate information to empower them to quit and/or reduce harm, should they choose to continue to use.

 

The program is particularly relevant for students already using, for students at-risk for using, and/or for students living in communities in which there is any level of exposure to drugs.

 

This program can be accessed on the Stanford REACH Lab website.

 

CATCH My Breath is an evidence-based youth nicotine vaping prevention program that provides students with the skills to resist peer pressure and media influences to try e-cigarettes. The overall goal of CATCH is to prevent the initiation of e-cigarette use and the program is taught over four, 45- to 50-minute lessons. 

• Discover that non-use of e-cigarettes is the norm for adolescents. 
• Identify reasons why young people might start using e-cigarettes. 
• Recognize the subtle, and not so subtle, messages in e-cigarette advertising. 
• Practice skills for resisting peer pressure and advertising pressure to use e-cigarettes. 
• Decide on their personal reasons not to use e-cigarettes and set goals for future non-use.

• Resist their own curiosity, peer and advertising pressure to experiment with e-cigarettes. 
• Understand that e-cigarettes are addictive, unhealthy, and not as popular as they think. 
• Influence friends and peers not to use e-cigarettes.