Statehouse News Bureau

The Statehouse News Bureau provides educational, comprehensive coverage of legislation, elections, issues and other activities surrounding the Statehouse to Ohio's public radio and television stations.

New Ohio pilot program to increase awareness of drug use to be expanded soon

By Jo Ingles

Published March 22, 2022 at 9:41 PM EDT

The DREAM website currently being used as part of a pilot program will soon be expanded [DREAM program / State of Ohio] — The DREAM website currently being used as part of a pilot program will soon be expanded

Many schools are not using DARE programs for drug use prevention, said Ben Suver, director of Law Enforcement Initiatives for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

Suver said schools without that kind of programming were reaching out to drug task forces to ask for it. So the state came up with a new program to provide age-appropriate drug prevention education to Ohio's children.

“Really anybody — a parent, a 4-H leader, a teacher, a DARE instructor, a leader — could access the website free of charge and access a number of videos they can use in educating various age groups," Suver said.

Suver said the Drug Resilience Education Awareness Mentorship (DREAM) program features a website that provides talking points and videos of good role models for kids. The resource focuses on the importance of staying away from drug use and misuse. Suver said this could be helpful even in schools that already have some sort of drug use prevention program in place.

Right now, DREAM is being used in a handful of schools and one homeschool for the youngest elementary students in kindergarten through third grade. But he said the goal is to expand the program to include education for older children, possibly as soon as this fall.