Center for Community Engagement

In 2016-2018, alarmingly, the opioid epidemic ravaged communities of color. Forty percent of the African American national population misused opioids, which subjected them to unjust labels of “drug user.” The pattern of racially labelling African American communities as “drug users” was not only driven by implicit discrimination, but also carried over to this community’s current abuse rates of marijuana.This pattern of bias have been shown tounderstand the prevalence of marijuana mis-use rates. However, previous studies have not unearthed how marijuana abuse education and initiative creation have contributed to marijuanaabuse prevention in CA. In partnership with South Central Prevention Coalition(SCPC), this research gap is addressed by applying a community engagement research lens to implement effective marijuana education and safe drug disposal programs that can steer marginalized individuals towards marijuana abuse prevention. Through mixed methods data collection, next steps include conducting focus group interviews and devising program evaluation surveys tobetter understand substance user/non-substance users perception on types of programming available in their community as well as the effectiveness of the programming in bringing awareness to marijuana abuse prevention. Final implications will inform the dangers ofmarijuana mis-use through effective community prevention program efforts and further call for a decrease in marijuana outlet production/accessibility to youth communities of color in SouthCentral LA.