Views From the Field

The COVID-19 pandemic is the public health crisis of this century. In a sense we are all riding the same storm, but in different boats.

Katrin Wesner-Harts, Ed.D., Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington

I was barely old enough to order a beer when I found myself being deployed to Iraq. This was post-9/11 so to say tensions were high is an understatement at best. I was thrown right into the deep end.

As coalition leaders of Missouri Partners in Prevention, Missouri’s higher education substance misuse consortium dedicated to creating healthy and safe college campuses, we get asked a lot about what the most effective way is to create change on campus.

As a former campus police officer, I have seen firsthand how instrumental training in substance misuse and mental health is for all professionals working in postsecondary settings. 

As the Drug Director for the state of Arkansas, I have the responsibility of overseeing all state-funded substance prevention, substance treatment, and substance recovery activities and programs; advising the governor’s office on drug and alcohol policy issues; overseeing the (fiscal) funding of 19 drug task force units in Arkansas; and overseeing the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council.

Decades of research have examined the effectiveness of in-person prevention efforts to address substance misuse among college students. 

Richard Lucey, Jr., Senior Prevention Program Manager in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Community Outreach and Prevention Support Section

Alcohol. Marijuana. Opioids. Vaping. It is not a secret that misuse of these substances and others is a very real, and in some cases, a growing threat on college campuses nationwide.

Though institutions of higher education who accept federal funds must remain compliant with the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act—meaning that use and/or possession of cannabis, in any form, or possession of any paraphernalia, will not be tolerated on campus—state retail cannabis laws and regulations are continuing to change.