Drug-Free World "Segway Team" Rolls Through San Francisco's Embarcadero in the Week Before the Big Game

San Francisco, CA, February 5, 2016 (Newswire.com) - With more than a million expected to flood the San Francisco Bay Area for this year’s NFL championship, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World is reaching out throughout the week with factual information to help tackle the drug abuse epidemic.

Drug abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.:

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

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

• Illicit drug sales in San Francisco alone are estimated at $400 million annually.
   
• Illicit drug sales for the entire country as of 2010 came to an estimated $100 billion.
   
• The direct and indirect cost of illicit drug use—including crime, health care and lost productivity is more than $193 billion annually. 

• In 2014, more than 25,000 Americans died of prescription drug overdose alone.   

One of the world’s largest nongovernmental drug education and prevention campaigns, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World is in the forefront of providing effective drug prevention. 

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy states that drug prevention is “the most cost-effective way to reduce drug use and its consequences,” and “the best approach to reducing the tremendous toll substance abuse exacts from individuals, families and communities is to prevent the damage before it occurs.” It also states that according to recent research “every dollar invested in school-based substance use prevention programs has the potential to save up to $18 in costs related to substance use.”

Volunteers are handing out copies of booklets called The Truth About Drugs, playing their award-winning public service announcements and The Truth About Drugs—Real People, Real Stories documentary and collecting signatures on their drug-free pledge. 

Parents, concerned their kids may already be taking drug, may speak to one of the volunteers to discover a simple way to broach the subject and help their children make informed decisions not to experiment with drugs or to quit before it’s too late.

The volunteers are also there to answer questions and arrange free drug prevention materials and training for any parents, mentors or educators wishing to do something effective to end the drug epidemic.