60 Fun Facts About Red Ribbon Week

Red Ribbon Week honours a DEA agent who was kidnapped and murdered in Mexico in 1985. What was his name?

Known as "Kiki", Camarena had been working undercover in Guadalajara for more than four years when he was abducted in broad daylight.

In which California border town, Camarena's hometown, were red ribbons first worn for him?

The ribbon became their symbol for reducing the demand for illegal drugs, and it spread from there across the country.

Red Ribbon Week is observed on the same dates every year. Which are they?

The window ends on Halloween, which is why many schools fold their costume days and door-decorating contests into the campaign.

The first National Red Ribbon Week was organised by the National Family Partnership in which year?

Congress proclaimed it, three years after Camarena’s death.

Which First Lady chaired the first National Red Ribbon Week?

She had received a proclamation from Camarena Club members in 1986 and was already the face of the Just Say No campaign.

What were the anti-drug student groups Duncan Hunter and David Dhillon launched in California high schools called?

In 1986 club members carried a proclamation to the White House.

According to the DEA, Red Ribbon Week holds what distinction among US drug-prevention programmes?

It began as a grassroots tribute and grew into a nationwide campaign during Ronald Reagan's presidency.

The Red Ribbon Week sponsor NFP was founded in 1980 under what earlier name?

It is still a grassroots non-profit and runs the annual theme contest that students enter each year.

Camarena's pilot, who flew missions with him and was kidnapped the same day, was named what?

Both men's bodies were found wrapped in plastic near La Angostura, Michoacán, on March 5, 1985.

Before joining the DEA in 1973, Camarena served in which branch of the US military?

He was a lance corporal from 1968 to 1970, then a Calexico police officer before moving into narcotics work.

What was the DEA's largest-ever homicide investigation, into agent Camarena's murder, code-named?

Leyenda is Spanish for legend; the year before, Camarena had helped uncover the giant Rancho Búfalo marijuana plantation in Chihuahua.

Which actor plays Camarena in Narcos: Mexico?

The story had already been dramatised in the 1990 miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story.

The DEA, the agency Camarena served, was established in which year?

President Nixon's reorganisation merged the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs with several other offices to create it.

The DEA is a federal law enforcement agency that sits under which arm of the US government?

Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia, where the agency also opened a museum in 1999.

Just Say No traces to a First Lady's 1984 visit to Longfellow Elementary in which city?

A schoolgirl asked what to do if offered drugs, and Reagan's reply went largely unnoticed until students there started the first club.

Roughly how many Just Say No clubs were founded in schools and youth organisations?

The campaign also reached TV: the First Lady appeared as herself on Diff’rent Strokes in 1983.

The DARE programme began in 1983 on the initiative of which city's police chief?

Chief Daryl Gates worked with the school district superintendent to put uniformed officers in classrooms.

What animal is DARE's mascot, Daren?

In 2012 the programme swapped its lecture-heavy lessons for the interactive keepin' it REAL curriculum.

Which group did Candace Lightner found in 1980 after a drunk driver killed her daughter?

Lightner left the group in 1985; the organisation later moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas.

SADD was founded in 1981 by hockey coach Robert Anastas at a high school in which state?

Two of Wayland High School's hockey players had died in a drunk-driving incident; the group renamed itself Students Against Destructive Decisions in 1997.

The 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act pushed every US state to set the drinking age at what?

Despite its name, the law only bans purchase and public possession under that age, not consumption itself.

How did the National Minimum Drinking Age Act pressure states to comply?

The Supreme Court upheld the arrangement in the 1987 case South Dakota v. Dole.

In most US states, drivers aged 21 and over are breaking the law at what blood alcohol concentration?

Zero-tolerance laws set the bar far lower for drivers under 21, at just 0.01% or 0.02%.

Which is the only US state to have lowered its drink-driving limit to 0.05%?

Campaigners had earlier lobbied to bring the national standard down from 0.10 to 0.08.

Alcohol is classified as what kind of drug, because it decreases neurons' electrical activity?

Its by-product acetaldehyde is responsible for many of alcohol’s toxic and unpleasant effects.

Which organ metabolises 90 percent or more of the alcohol a person drinks?

Alcohol and its by-product acetaldehyde are both classed as Group 1 carcinogens by the IARC.

Teenagers who binge drink regularly tend to show a smaller version of which memory-related brain region?

Early adolescence, before about age 15, is a critical window when key neural systems are still maturing.

The brain region that weighs long-term consequences is not fully mature until what age?

That lag between the reward circuitry and the prefrontal cortex is one reason young people are more vulnerable to addiction.

Which reward-pathway brain chemical gives drugs and their cues such a strong pull on behaviour?

Repeated exposure leaves lasting changes in circuits governing reward, stress and self-control, which is why addiction is treated as a brain disorder.

Which is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, blamed for around 8 million deaths a year?

Its smoke is a mix of more than 7,000 chemicals, 69 of which are known carcinogens.

Nicotine is an alkaloid found mainly in plants of which family?

Long before vapes, nicotine had another job: it has been used as an insecticide since at least 1690.

Nicotiana, the tobacco genus behind 'nicotine', is named after which French ambassador who sent seeds to Paris in 1560?

He presented tobacco to the French court as a medicine; Linnaeus later fixed the name on the plant genus.

Which symptoms characterise nicotine withdrawal, part of why the drug is described as highly addictive?

Nicotine replacement products such as gum and patches raise a smoker's odds of quitting successfully by 50-60%.

In which year was the US Surgeon General's report linking smoking to lung cancer released?

It was deliberately released on a Saturday to soften the stock-market reaction and maximise Sunday newspaper coverage.

Which Surgeon General chaired the 10-member advisory committee behind that 1964 smoking report?

The committee reviewed more than 7,000 scientific papers, and warning labels on cigarette packs followed within a year.

What is smoke that drifts straight off a burning cigarette, rather than being exhaled, called?

Thirdhand smoke is different again: the residue left on surfaces after the cigarette is out and the air has cleared.

On which day does the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout fall?

The idea traces to a Massachusetts man in 1970 who asked people to skip cigarettes for a day and donate the savings to a school.

Which Chinese pharmacist patented the design of the modern e-cigarette in 2003?

The typical e-liquid is about 95% propylene glycol and glycerin, with flavourings and nicotine making up the rest.

In 2024, which product had been US youth's top tobacco product for 11 straight years?

Youth use peaked in 2019 and fell substantially afterwards; the FDA has regulated the devices as tobacco products since 2016.

In December 2019 the US raised the federal minimum age to buy tobacco and vaping products to what?

The town of Needham, Massachusetts, had gone first in 2005, and Hawaii became the first state in 2016.

What is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug, legal and largely unregulated almost everywhere?

It works by blocking adenosine receptors, the brain's drowsiness signal, and its effects last about three to four hours.

Opioids are drugs that derive from, or mimic, natural substances found in which plant?

Morphine, the first alkaloid ever isolated from a plant, was named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams.

Fentanyl is roughly how many times more potent than morphine?

That potency is why counterfeit pills are so dangerous: tiny errors in weight produce huge differences between batches.

Which Belgian chemist first synthesised fentanyl at his newly formed pharmaceutical company?

In the US it is a Schedule II controlled substance: high abuse potential but accepted medical uses such as anaesthesia.

Naloxone, the medication that reverses an opioid overdose, is best known under which brand name?

It has little to no effect if opioids are not present, so giving it to someone who has not taken opioids does no harm.

Naloxone blocks the effects of opioids for roughly how long?

The drug was patented back in 1961 and now sits on the WHO's List of Essential Medicines.

The Controlled Substances Act, signed by President Nixon in 1970, sorts drugs into how many schedules?

The DEA and FDA together decide where each substance is placed.

Which Controlled Substances Act category holds drugs with high abuse potential and no accepted medical use?

At the other end, Schedule V covers things like cough medicines containing small amounts of codeine.

Which is the only category of substance used more by younger teenagers than by older teenagers?

They are ordinary household and industrial chemicals, and misuse can trigger a fatal heart rhythm known as sudden sniffing death.

Which three classes of prescription drug are most commonly misused?

The definition includes taking someone else's prescription, which is why unused pills in family medicine cabinets are a concern.

Since July 2022, which three-digit number reaches the US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline around the clock?

It replaced the older 1-800-273-8255 number, and callers can also text or, as veterans, press 1.

The US Poison Help hotline, 1-800-222-1222, is staffed by specialists trained in what field?

The line is run by America's Poison Centers, and every dollar spent on the system is estimated to save more than 13 in health costs.

A New York artists' caucus adopted the red ribbon in 1991 as the symbol of which cause?

Actor Jeremy Irons wore one at that year's Tony Awards, which sent the symbol worldwide.

Which colour of awareness ribbon is best known for breast cancer support?

Purple ribbons cover causes including Alzheimer’s and opioid-crisis awareness.

Penney Laingen, wife of a US hostage in Iran, popularised ribbons of which colour by tying them round trees in 1979?

The colour later became the standard sign of support for deployed troops, prisoners of war and the missing.

In which Mexican border city was Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena born in 1947?

His family moved across the line to Calexico when he was a child, and the town later wore the first red ribbons in his memory.

What was the name of the huge Chihuahua marijuana plantation destroyed in 1984 on DEA information?

450 Mexican soldiers backed by helicopters razed the 1,000-hectare operation, said to be worth $8 billion a year.

Which high-school friend of Camarena launched California's first statewide Red Ribbon Campaign in 1985?

He later served in the White House as Director of USA Freedom Corps in 2007-08.

In 2018 the DEA ran a one-time Red Ribbon Week patch program for members of which organisations?

A limited run of up to 15,000 patches rewarded scouts who promoted or joined anti-drug activities that October.

Which US president's administration saw the Camarena Clubs grow into a nationwide Red Ribbon effort?

In 1986 club members presented a proclamation to the First Lady, who was already fronting the Just Say No campaign.