Learning | Targeting Real-World Threats: DopaGE Topic Selection Strategy

When developing life-saving education, every decision must be grounded in evidence and focused on maximum impact. That's why our substance selection process goes far beyond assumptions or outdated approaches—it's built on rigorous risk assessment that reflects the realities young adults face today.

A Framework for Real-World Risk Assessment

Our substance selection is based on a risk assessment framework that identifies the highest-threat substances young adults are most likely to encounter in real-world situations.

This methodology dives much deeper than the traditional approach of simply listing "dangerous drugs," to focus on where physiological and dependency risks intersect with actual probability of encounter among young adults. In this way, DopaGE fills a critical gap in current substance education. While many parents lack the specialized knowledge to provide comprehensive substance education, and schools typically focus on the most commonly used substances like cannabis and nicotine, DopaGE targets the substances that pose the greatest risk of hospitalization, overdose, dependency, and other serious physical consequences. Our intensive, gamified training focuses on these high-risk substances, while providing text-based resources for the less dangerous yet still prevalent substances to ensure comprehensive coverage.

The Critical Intersection: High Risk Meets High Probability

Our analysis considers both harm potential and experimentation likelihood. For example, while cannabis is widely used, it very rarely causes life-threatening harm. Conversely, a substance like heroin poses extreme danger but is rarely a young adult's choice for experimentation. Our training focuses on substances that fall into the critical intersection of high risk and high probability of encounter.

These substances are regularly glamorized in popular culture and commonly encountered by young adults in social settings and online, including cocaine, MDMA (molly/ecstasy), and prescription depressants. These substances represent the most significant threat because they combine social accessibility with serious health risks.

This targeted approach ensures that educational resources are allocated where they can have the greatest protective impact, rather than dispersed across theoretical risks that students are unlikely to face.

The Fentanyl Crisis, Tackled Holistically

A critical component of our training addresses fentanyl contamination. Given that a dose of any of the targeted substances may now be adulterated with fentanyl, our learners receive comprehensive training in contexts relevant to them on contamination recognition and emergency overdose response protocols. These skills provide essential preparation for now common life-threatening situations.

The presence of fentanyl in the drug supply has fundamentally altered risk calculations. Substances that might previously have been considered "lower risk" can now be lethal on first use. This reality requires educational approaches that acknowledge both the changing landscape and the life-saving importance of overdose response knowledge.

Addressing the Polysubstance Threat

Importantly, we address polysubstance use - the use of 2 or more substances concurrently - particularly the often-fatal combination of the target substances with alcohol. When young people combine alcohol with other substances, the death rate is seven times higher than from alcohol alone, so our evidence-based training scenarios specifically target prevention of these dangerous combinations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024).

Research consistently demonstrates that polysubstance use, especially involving alcohol, represents one of the most preventable causes of substance-related fatalities among young adults and thereby is where education can most directly save lives.

Evidence-Driven, Reality-Focused Selection

Every substance included in our curriculum represents a documented risk that young people face in their social environments as they mature into adulthood, ensuring our training addresses genuine threats and creates practical prevention young adults meaningfully use for real protection against hospitalization, overdose, and dependency.