Review of Cannabis-Related Programmatic Activities for Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program Coalitions

Legalization by states of medical and non-medical cannabis use is increasing the accessibility of cannabis to Americans. While cannabis use remains illegal for youth, enhanced effective approaches preventing youth's cannabis use are important. The Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program is administered by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and represents the nation's leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent and reduce youth substance use. Coalitions use the Seven Strategies for Community Change to ensure the creation of comprehensive action plans and a community-wide approach for preventing youth substance use. This study's objective is to review the cannabis programmatic activities implemented by DFC coalitions, identify common themes, and assess whether activities align with the Seven Strategies for Community Change. Review of biannual progress report (PR) data collected from August 2020 to February 2021 was conducted to determine common themes, strengths, and areas of improvement among cannabis programmatic activities. Of the 727 funded coalitions, 73% (n = 532) identified cannabis as a substance they focused their activities on in their PR submissions, and 488 unique cannabis programmatic activities were reviewed. Cannabis programmatic activities were assigned to one of six common themes: 1) dissemination (n = 167), 2) training and education (n = 147), 3) community partnerships (n = 99), 4) policy and enforcement (n = 51), 5) miscellaneous (n = 15), and 6) communities of focus (n = 9). Findings could inform local organizations about common types of youth cannabis-related prevention activities implemented at the community-level. The least commonly reported strategies, such as communities of focus, may highlight opportunities for expanded prevention efforts for coalitions.