Teen drug use in Oklahoma runs higher than the national average across most categories, and the state is trying a new approach in its schools.
On July 8, the Office of Attorney General Drummond invited school districts to take part in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program at no cost through a new effort called the Oklahoma READY initiative.
For Oklahoma families, the practical question is whether your district will pick it up, and what to do if your child needs more than a classroom lesson.
What Teen Drug Use in Oklahoma Looks Like
Children in Oklahoma use substances at higher rates than the national average in several categories, including cigarettes, marijuana, illicit drugs, and opioids, according to the 2021-2023 Behavioral Health Barometer from SAMHSA. Alcohol is the one category where Oklahoma sits below the national rate.
Over that same 2021 to 2023 window, 18.4 percent of Oklahoma children aged 12 to 17 who were surveyed reported having a substance use disorder in the past year.
Marijuana is the most commonly used drug among children in the state. A 2024 survey of school resource officers across Oklahoma found that 92 percent of respondents reported an increase in marijuana-related incidents after medical legalization in 2018.
About one-sixth said students obtain marijuana using their own medical card, and about one-third attributed access to parents.
How the Free Program Works
The attorney general’s office selected Botvin LifeSkills Training because of its evidence base. A 2025 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found the program reduced substance use when districts followed it as designed.
The initiative uses opioid abatement grants as stipends for participating districts, which makes the program effectively free if a district has someone who can serve as a facilitator.
Becoming a facilitator means completing an eight-hour training and then teaching the curriculum to students across a range of ages.
Adair High School had already been running Botvin with opioid abatement money before the statewide initiative launched.
Facilitator Keni Burns described a positive experience and recalled overhearing students in the hallway discussing why nicotine is bad for them after one of her lessons.
Moving Adair onto the state initiative frees up the money the district had been spending, which it can redirect toward other prevention work such as hiring a part-time counselor.
Craig Zettle, senior vice president of the LifeSkills Training program, described the curriculum as a universal model aimed at students who have no experience with substances as well as those who have experimented.
He said it would not be harmful to a thrill-seeking adolescent in the way some other programming might be, but that some young people need extra support through addiction therapy.
Understanding Marijuana Use in Teens
Marijuana affects the developing brain differently than it does an adult brain, and regular use in adolescence is associated with problems in attention, memory, and learning.
Cannabis use disorder is a recognized diagnosis, and withdrawal is real, though it is not medically dangerous. Common signs include irritability, sleep trouble, appetite changes, and restlessness after stopping.
Signs of addiction in a teenager are often behavioral before they are physical. Watch for a drop in grades, a change in friend group, loss of interest in activities that used to matter, secrecy about whereabouts, missing money, and sleeping far more or far less than usual.
Any one of these on its own may be ordinary adolescence. Several together are worth a conversation.
What a Curriculum Cannot Do
Educators and counselors interviewed for the original reporting were direct about the limits.
Rachel May, a substance abuse counselor at Stillwater Public Schools, described the situation as a puzzle with four parts, which she named as manpower, fidelity to programming, time, and money.
She said training teachers makes sense and would be valuable, but wondered whether it becomes one more thing on plates that are already full.
May pushes a cart of props through classrooms across her district. She uses a model brain to show students which parts of theirs are still developing, and tubes of chemicals to show what is actually in vapes, including the kinds of compounds found in insect killers and floor cleaners.
Her method emphasizes knowledge rather than scare tactics. Her district has seen a decrease in substance-related offenses over the last three years, though she noted the data collection was inconsistent during her first two years.
May was hired using COVID relief funds, and the district has applied for grants to keep her position since.
She noted that Oklahoma READY will be offered to middle and high school students, while for many students the first interaction with substances happens in fourth grade.
LaDonna McCune, a substance abuse studies professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, said having a licensed substance abuse counselor available is vital.
She said educating students is only the beginning, and that young people need someone who can provide referral information or arrange counseling for them and their families.
Oklahoma continues to face a shortage of trained substance abuse counselors, McCune said. Staffing pressure is uneven across the state.
May noted that her district has more supports than many smaller schools, and said that even with those supports the work is hard.
Finding Addiction Treatment in Oklahoma
Prevention programming reaches every student in a classroom, but teen drug use in Oklahoma will still outrun a curriculum for some families.
If your child needs more, the next step is an assessment by a licensed professional. Start with your school counselor if your district has one, your pediatrician, or the state substance abuse agency.
Ask any program you contact whether it serves adolescents specifically, whether it involves families in treatment, and whether it can coordinate with your child’s school.
Addictions.com lists verified addiction treatment centers in Oklahoma with details on levels of care, insurance accepted, and populations served, so you can compare drug rehabs in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and smaller communities across the state. Call
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