Tackling Drug Abuse Amid The Big Game's Festivities

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With more than 1 million fans expected to converge on the San Francisco Bay area for The Big Game, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World is launching an all-out prevention campaign to focus attention on the scourge of abuse and addiction.

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Abuse of illicit and prescription drugs is a national emergency. Illicit drug sales in San Francisco alone are estimated at $400 million annually. A Rand Corporation study requested by U.S. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy found that illicit drug sales for the entire country as of 2010 came to an estimated $100 billion. A U.S. Justice Department April 2011 publication, "The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society," pins the direct and indirect cost of illicit drug use—including crime, health care and lost productivity—at more than $193 billion annually. And the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that in 2014, more than 25,000 Americans died of prescription drug overdose alone. 

The White House recognizes drug prevention as "the most cost-effective way to reduce drug use and its consequences," stating, "The best approach to reducing the tremendous toll substance abuse exacts from individuals, families and communities is to prevent the damage before it occurs."

The Foundation for a Drug-Free World is pulling all stops to reach fans from around the country and local residents with the unvarnished truth about today's most commonly abused drugs. They plan to distribute 300,000 copies of The Truth About Drugs booklet in the coming week. Foundation volunteers have distributed more than 50 million copies of the booklet internationally, including 1 million at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The Foundation for a Drug-Free World is a secular, nonprofit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with its Truth About Drugs initiative the world's largest nongovernmental anti-drug information and prevention campaign.

The Church of Scientology supports The Truth About Drugs initiative and its International Dissemination and Distribution Center in Los Angeles, California, produces the Foundation's booklets, DVDs and education packages and distributes them free of charge to thousands of drug education instructors, law enforcement agencies, and government and private sector institutions.

SOURCE Foundation for a Drug-Free World