In 2019 and in the midst of an opioid epidemic, the state of Kentucky saw a glimmer of hope.  For more than a decade, annual overdoses and overdose deaths had increased every single year.  But in 2019, the Commonwealth reported approximately 15% less overdoses than the previous year.  This reduction roughly equates to 233 lives saved.  

            Part of the state’s success is owed to the Cooperative Extension Service’s new initiatives surrounding substance use.  Starting in 2018, UK Extension conducted a state-wide needs assessment to identify programmatic aims and priorities.  In virtually all 120 counties in Kentucky, substance use was identified as one of the top concerns or as the top concern.  In response, UK Extension began aggressively pursuing federal funding to meet these county-level needs.  Drs. Hunter, Elswick, and Davis successfully wrote for a SAMHSA Rural Opioid Technical Assistance (ROTA) grant whose primary aim is to prevent and reduce opioid use in rural counties.  In addition to funding youth drug prevention programming called Botvin LifeSkills, the grant’s other central aim was the development of an addiction education curriculum to be delivered in a diverse array of settings and to a diverse array of audiences.  The “Addiction 101” curriculum mixes lived experiences, addiction research, and empirical evidence which aims to reduce stigma, raise awareness about substance use, and to change attitudes at individual, family, and community levels.

            Since the grant was funded in 2019, the formalized Addiction 101 program has been delivered in-person on more than 20 different occasions, in six different states, in collaboration with four other land grant universities, as well as for multiple virtual events as well.  Addiction 101 has been utilized to target youth in 4-H, Extension agents, Extension Homemakers, rural healthcare providers, social service workers, people who work in the addiction treatment field, and people in various stages of treatment and recovery.