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Truth Initiative is America’s largest nonprofit public health organization committed to making tobacco use a thing of the past.

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In our fight to end tobacco use, we focus on the issues that matter most. We constantly monitor, investigate and analyze the latest topics and trends in tobacco and substance use.

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Get the latest facts and analyses on the most important issues in tobacco and substance use.

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We give young people the facts about tobacco and the industry behind it, engage individuals and groups to make change in their communities, innovate ways to end tobacco use and join forces with collaborators committed to a tobacco-free future.

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The opioid crisis

Young people are particularly vulnerable to opioid misuse. Two decades of combating tobacco use has prepared us to continue the fight and contribute to ending this epidemic by sharing our expertise in youth and young adult education and prevention.

The Truth About Opioids

Every day in 2017, an estimated 1,300 young adults misused an opioid prescription for the first time. Young Americans are especially vulnerable to misunderstanding the risks associated with opioid misuse, addiction and the dangerous spiral down from prescription to illicit use.

Truth Initiative, one of the largest public health education organizations focused on youth and young adult prevention, is lending its expertise from its successful youth tobacco prevention efforts to help combat the opioid crisis and focus on youth prevention and education.

On June 7, 2018, after a year of formative work, Truth Initiative launched a public education truth prevention campaign, The Truth About Opioids, in partnership with the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Ad Council. This Emmy award winning campaign is designed to help young people understand the dangers of opioid misuse and addiction and the role they can play in creating change.

Read more about our opioid work

Why Truth Initiative is taking on misuse prevention and education

Truth Initiative is uniquely qualified to make an impact on the opioid crisis given the recognition and credibility of the truth brand and our outstanding record of success in tobacco prevention and education.

Approximately 80% of U.S. youth and young adults under age 25 recognize the truth brand. Surveys of our target audience reveal that the majority of youth and young adults agree that truth should engage in educating the public about opioids.

Addressing youth and young adult opioid addiction and misuse is a natural extension of our anti-tobacco work. Evidence indicates that exposure to nicotine — a highly addictive substance — primes the adolescent brain to be sensitive to other addictive substances. Seventy-four percent of opioid users are current or former tobacco users.

Additionally, the Master Settlement Agreement, which created our organization, authorizes us to develop and disseminate “advertising and education programs to counter the use by youth of substances that are unlawful for use or purchase by youth.” While our efforts have exclusively focused on tobacco up until this point, we believe the time is now to expand our focus and address this immediate crisis, in addition to our work to end tobacco use.

The difference Truth Initiative can make

The reasons for this crisis are complex. It is the result of pharmaceutical industry marketing, physician guidelines and prescribing practices, the regulatory environment, law enforcement, gaps in consumer knowledge, access to addiction treatment and popular culture influences.

We cannot tackle all of it, but we believe we can meaningfully contribute to the solution by influencing young people’s knowledge, attitudes and beliefs around the issue and, ultimately, impacting their behavior. This is the model that has proven successful for truth.

Given the toll of the national opioid crisis, its adjacency to our existing work and the authority within the Master Settlement Agreement, we believe we are uniquely positioned to educate youth and young adults about the risks of opioid addiction and misuse.

Learn more about The Truth About Opioids

Joining forces with partners

Media, corporate, nonprofit and government partners have joined us to take on opioid misuse education and prevention. The Truth About Opioids campaign, produced in collaboration with the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Ad Council, is supported in donated media by top platforms, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, YouTube, NBCUniversal and Turner. Fortune 500 company Leidos is contributing to fund the research behind The Truth About Opioids, including foundational studies, continuous surveying and outcome evaluations, as part of its effort to play a role combating the opioid crisis.

Explore how you can partner with us to help end the opioid epidemic