Pathways 2 Prevention

About Pathways 2 Prevention

Join us for Drug Free America Foundation’s ‘Pathways to Prevention’ podcast as we engage stakeholders from across the drug demand reduction spectrum including government, academia, clergy, preventionists, treatment professionals, and persons in long-term recovery. Topics of discussion include current trends in the global substance use pandemic, strategies to reduce drug demand, and how to best adapt those strategies to the ever-shifting substance use landscape.

Publisher

Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Jun 2021

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

58 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Why the DEA Does Prevention: The Story Behind Red Ribbon Week

   The "E" in DEA stands for enforcement, not education. So why does the nation's largest drug law enforcement agency have a team whose entire job is prevention? Dave Closson sits down with Sean Fearns and Kevin Collins of DEA Community Outreach and Prevention Support to trace the answer back 40 years. It begins with the loss of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in 1985, and with the high school students in his hometown of Calexico, California, who formed Camarena Clubs and pledged to live drug-free. Parents picked it up, it spread across the country, and it became Red Ribbon Week. From there, the conversation turns to today: what Fentanyl Free America means, why falling overdose deaths don't mean the problem is solved, how counterfeit pills reach young people through their phones, and the free, science-based resources the DEA offers to anyone doing prevention work. About the guestsSean Fearns is Chief of Community Outreach and Prevention Support at DEA headquarters. He has spent 27 years at the DEA engaging with the public, including building the DEA Museum, and has led the agency's community outreach and prevention support work for the past decade. Kevin Collins is a Senior Prevention Program Manager at the DEA. Before joining the agency about two and a half years ago, he spent roughly 20 years with the Partnership to End Addiction. He also served as a civil affairs officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.One thing to do for Red Ribbon Week (October 23–31)+ Have a real conversation with a young person in your life. Ask what they're hearing, what they're worried about, and what's going well. + Ask your mayor, council, or sheriff to light a building, bridge, or water tower red for Go Red for Red Ribbon. + Take the free materials at dea.gov/redribbon and share them with your PTA, workplace, or neighbors. Resources mentioned Red Ribbon Week (October 23–31): www.dea.gov/redribbon Fentanyl Free America: www.dea.gov/fentanylfree Operation Prevention (free curriculum, grades 3–12, English and Spanish): www.operationprevention.com Get Smart About Drugs (parents, caregivers, educators): www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com DEA publications library: www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com/resources Hidden on Your Kid's Phone: www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com/hidden Tools to Talk with Your Young Person about Anything: www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com/toolstotalk Just Think Twice (teens): www.justthinktwice.com Campus Drug Prevention (colleges and universities): www.campusdrugprevention.gov Together for Families: www.dea.gov/togetherforfamilies (add your organization: togetherforfamilies@dea.gov) Faces of Fentanyl Memorial Exhibit: www.dea.gov/facesoffentanyl Find your Community Outreach Specialist: www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov/cos Treatment and support: FindTreatment.gov, or call or text 988 Pathways 2 Prevention is powered by the Drug Free America Foundation. Learn more at dfaf.org (https://dfaf.org/).

2. 

   1 Sept 2026

   Building the First Inclusive Recovery Community in the Nation with Ashley Neal

   This episode is about how a tri-county partnership in Tampa Bay became the first inclusive recovery community in the nation. Ashley Neal, a recovery advocate and community organizer who helped build the Inclusive Recovery Community Tampa Bay (IRCTB), walks through the whole arc: getting county governments to sign on, recruiting treatment centers and recovery organizations under one shared umbrella, and building a public events calendar that makes recovery visible instead of scattered. Ashley has spent more than 20 years in recovery herself, and she's spent the last decade turning that experience into systems-level work across Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties. Her story includes real setbacks (a hurricane that derailed the original plan, months of waiting on one county's buy-in) and the specific moves that finally broke things loose. Listen for what an inclusive recovery community actually is (hint: not a program), how to get three different county governments to a yes, and why a shared calendar of recovery events matters more than it sounds like it should. In This Episode Ashley's own 20-plus year recovery story, told with striking honesty about the years before she got help What an "inclusive recovery community" is and isn't, in plain language How Hurricane Helene derailed the original plan, and how the tri-county model came together instead The exact move that finally got Pinellas County to say yes after months of waiting Why IRCTB's public events calendar and window-cling awareness campaign are doing more work than they look like they are Links https://irctampabay.com/ (https://irctampabay.com/) https://www.dfaf.org (https://www.dfaf.org/)/

3. 

   29 Jul 2026

   Inside the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy with Dr. Roneet Lev

   What happens when an emergency physician who spent years on the front lines of the overdose crisis gets to help write national drug policy? In this episode, Dave Closson sits down with Dr. Roneet Lev, chief medical officer at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, to unpack the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy and what it means for the people doing prevention work on the ground. Dr. Lev shaped the public health side of the strategy, and she brings both the data and the heart behind it. The conversation moves from her own path into addiction medicine to the choices that make this document different from the ones before it: clearer language around primary prevention, a first-ever place for faith, a new push for real-time drug threat data, and a treatment-first approach to the hardest populations. If you lead a coalition, work in prevention, treatment, or recovery, or simply care about your community, you will hear your work named and championed at the highest level. Come for the policy. Stay for the reminder that no one is a lost cause. Guest Bio: Dr. Roneet Lev is the chief medical officer at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. A board-certified emergency physician and addiction medicine specialist, she spent years leading community overdose response in San Diego before helping shape the public health side of the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy. Parents who lost children to addiction remain her moral compass. Drug Free America Foundation Links: - Website (https://www.dfaf.org/) - Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DrugFreeAmericaFndn/) - Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/drugfreeamericafoundation/) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg9f7kHutH1xAFO_ZIRPmrg) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/drugfreeamerica) Episode Links: Office of National Drug Control Policy (https://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/) 2026 National Drug Control Strategy (https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/05/2026-national-drug-control-strategy-released/)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

243

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 48 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

37

Social presence

0

YouTube

72

Engagement

76