October 19, 2026 - This year's Red Ribbon Week theme, "Be a Hero. Stay Drug Free," comes from Ava Tackett, a Connecticut middle school student whose entry won a national contest last spring. It's a fitting choice for a campaign that began with the courage of one man.
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, a Marine Corps veteran from Calexico, California, spent several years in Mexico as a DEA special agent investigating drug traffickers before he sacrificed his life in the line of duty in 1985. Friends and neighbors in his hometown began wearing red ribbons in his honor, and by 1988, the National Family Partnership had organized the first National Red Ribbon Week. According to the Red Ribbon Campaign, the observance now reaches more than 100 million people each year, making it the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the nation.
During Red Ribbon Week, October 23 through October 31, local campuses will host dress-up days, pledge walls and rallies, many of them joined by the Alcohol and Drug Awareness Council's prevention team and its mascot, Leo the Drug-Free Lion. While school celebrations lay important groundwork, the most lasting prevention message usually comes from home. Federal health officials at SAMHSA count parents among the strongest influences on whether young people choose to drink or use drugs.
Parents can begin by stating their expectations clearly, letting children know the family's answer to alcohol, tobacco, vaping and other drugs is no, and explaining what will happen if a rule is broken. Young people who understand exactly where the boundaries lie find it easier to hold them when a friend applies pressure.
Listening may do even more good than talking. Ask what's going on at school or what they've been seeing online, and then give them time to answer. If your child mentions that a classmate has been vaping in the restroom, stay calm and ask a follow-up question. Children who don't get a big reaction are more likely to come back with the next story. And when they ask something you can't answer, it's fine to say so and look it up together.
It also helps to know who your children spend time with and who those friends' parents are. Ask who's driving and where they'll be, and check in if the plans change. Getting to know other parents pays off in another way, too. When several families in a friend group agree on the same rules, children hear the same message no matter which house they visit.
For parents, answering this year's call to be a hero rarely requires anything dramatic. It happens in conversations on the drive home, in a phone call to another parent and in steady answers to hard questions, repeated over many years. Families can begin this October by signing the National Red Ribbon Campaign's parent and youth pledges together at redribbon.org.
For prevention resources or to learn more about ADAC's work in local schools, call 936-634-5753 or visit adacdet.org. Additional information is available at dea.gov/redribbon.
