I was part of this country’s war on drugs and as the years passed I watched as substance abuse continued to climb and victimize more families, including my own.

Over the last 50 years, no laws, no legislation, no new enforcement or philosophical strategies have succeeded in reducing drug use in this country. None.

I’m Dave Kopeny the founder of asapcommunity.org and the author of Articles of Action. For 30 years I have worked with adolescents and their families in various capacities; as a teacher, counselor, and the bulk of those years as an Intensive Probation Officer working with troubled adolescents, their families, and quite often with staff and teachers of schools, community resources and the courts.

In 2018, I launched my company, Anchorpoint, where I developed intervention strategies aimed at helping parents address their child's substance abuse issues all of which are outlined in our Articles of Action. A pivotal moment came when a close friend and Illinois School Superintendent asked me if it was possible to expand my program to benefit the parents of all his students, a program that not only teaches drug intervention but also emphasizes prevention, available in both Spanish and English, and accessible and affordable to all families.

This inspired me to create a platform to equip parents with the necessary tools and strategies to help parents keep their children drug-free. This is what asapcommunity.org does.

Throughout my career I knew what it meant when parents told me
“we knew there was a problem but didn’t know how to stop it” or sadly “we had no idea what our child was doing”. I knew what they meant because I also grew up in a household of addiction.

I’ve lost family members to drugs.
It is a problem that gets stronger the longer it is allowed to continue.

The Center for Disease and Control now tells us that the parent who is involved in their child’s life can have the greatest impact to prevent drug use. I have known this for years.