{"id":19072,"date":"2025-05-03T17:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T16:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=19072"},"modified":"2025-08-11T15:46:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T14:46:05","slug":"kentuckys-better-without-it-anti-drug-campaign-recruits-college-basketball-players-to-reach-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/05\/kentuckys-better-without-it-anti-drug-campaign-recruits-college-basketball-players-to-reach-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky’s ‘Better Without It’ Anti-Drug Campaign Recruits College Basketball Players to Reach Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is tapping into his state’s love of college basketball to promote his drug prevention campaign aimed at young people<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By\u00a0Associated Press\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>March 19, 2025, at 2:08 p.m.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Louisville guard J’Vonne Hadley celebrates after scoring against the Clemson during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo\/Chris Carlson)<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) \u2014 Tapping into his state’s love of college basketball, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has recruited two players from top programs and given them roles as social media influencers to promote his\u00a0drug prevention initiative\u00a0aimed at young people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Social media videos released Tuesday feature University of Kentucky forward Trent Noah and University of Louisville guard J\u2019Vonne Hadley. The separate messages bridge their schools’ storied rivalry by offering a common theme \u2014 the importance of staying active and disciplined as part of the \u201cBetter Without It\u201d campaign. Their videos coincide with the start of the NCAA basketball tournament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMarch always brings madness to the commonwealth, and this year it also brings a lifesaving message: our young people are \u2018Better Without It,\u2019\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Bluegrass State is using prevention and treatment efforts to fight back against a\u00a0drug addiction epidemic.\u00a0Kentucky’s drug overdose death toll reached nearly 2,000 in 2023, with fentanyl \u2014 a powerful synthetic opioid \u2014 blamed as the biggest culprit. It marked a second straight annual decline in deaths, but the state’s top leaders say the fight is far from over. Kentucky lawmakers last year created tougher penalties for fentanyl dealers when their illicit distribution results in a fatal overdose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Coleman launched the drug prevention campaign last month with pitches from college coaches. The messages from Noah and Hadley are a key part of Coleman’s playbook. In a state where top college athletes become household names, he’s enlisting some of them to deliver positive, anti-drug messages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cTo reach Kentucky\u2019s young people with an effective statewide drug prevention message, we need the right messengers,” Coleman said in February. “That\u2019s why we\u2019re partnering with some of the biggest names in Kentucky\u2019s college athletics to tell … young people they are truly better without it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In his video, Noah says staying active \u201chelps me to be my best self by keeping me disciplined.\u201d At day’s end, when checking off all the things he’s done that day, “it creates the best me,\u201d he says.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In a previous video, University of Kentucky women’s basketball player Cassidy Rowe urges viewers to find pursuits that give them joy and that they can work toward. She said basketball taught her resilience, accountability and discipline \u2014 traits she applies to her everyday life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling pressured, I would just encourage you to stay true to yourself and not let others influence you to become something that you\u2019re not,\u201d she said in the video released last month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The drug prevention campaign encourages young people to be independent, make their own decisions and stay informed about the dangers of drug use, while highlighting the positive effects of a drug-free lifestyle, Coleman’s office said.<\/div>\n
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Last year, the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission approved Coleman’s two-year, $3.6 million proposal to establish the youth education campaign. Through name, image and likeness deals and other partnerships, student-athletes, influencers and others will promote positive messages about a drug-free lifestyle, the office said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/health-news\/articles\/2025-03-19\/kentuckys-better-without-it-anti-drug-campaign-recruits-college-basketball-players-to-reach-youth<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is tapping into his state’s love of college basketball to promote his drug prevention campaign aimed at young people By\u00a0Associated Press\u00a0\u00a0March 19, 2025, at 2:08 p.m. Louisville guard J’Vonne Hadley celebrates after scoring against the Clemson during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,119,19,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-prevalence","category-usa","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}