Houston Wellness Integrative Recovery Supports Drug Enforcement Administration Joining Forces With Milken Institute

To combat America’s rapidly growing opioid and heroin epidemic, the Milken Institute’s Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Public Health is joining forces with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), DEA Educational Foundation and Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, to expand the reach of Operation Prevention – a national, standards-based initiative developed to educate students, families, and employees about the science behind opioids, and their impact on the brain and body. Since launching in October of 2016, Operation Prevention’s immersive English-and Spanish-language tools have reached more than one million young people ages 8 to18.

“Operation Prevention’s mission to educate youth will make a meaningful contribution to the future of our nation’s health. The Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Public Health at the Milken Institute is pleased to be a part of the call to action to expand access to and awareness of prevention resources for communities,” said Ed Greissing, executive director, Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Public Health, Milken Institute. “This collaboration builds on the Institute’s efforts to extend life, and promote health and wellness at all ages, by using the most effective strategies to empower people in America and across the globe.”

The DEA, Discovery Education and the Milken Institute Center for Public Health will expand the reach of this program to millions more young people, and will be joined by a combined network of educators, advocacy organizations, businesses, think-tanks, and philanthropic institutions in all 50 states. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Substance and Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Education have contributed content, insights, and best practices to the development of Operation Prevention.

“This is an unprecedented epidemic – its growing and its growing fast. The United States makes up just five percent of the world’s population, but consumes the vast majority of the world’s hydrocodone. That said, it’s not surprising that opioids account for roughly three-fifths of all drug overdoses in the nation,” said DEA Acting Administrator Robert W. Patterson. “We’re proud of the fact that Operation Prevention is a free, science-based education tool for students, teachers, and parents. In collaboration with Discovery Education, the Milken Institute, and other key organizations, we are able to make the opioid epidemic understandable for students by teaching them the science behind addiction."