Author: Charlotte Waddell, Professor Emerita of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University

Can a program for Grade 7 students help end the opioid crisis? The answer is yes, according to compelling research findings on school-based primary prevention interventions. As noted by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, the opioid crisis is “a complex public health issue devastating the lives of many Canadians and their families who are experiencing accidental overdose or death from opioids.” To address this crisis, many of Canada’s responses to the opioid crisis still focus downstream on adults, after problems have started or become entrenched. In contrast, primary prevention operates upstream in childhood — before most young…