Red Ribbon Week 2012 runs from October 23 – 31. I’ve talked about Red Ribbon Week several times in the past starting in 2007. Last year there was a contest in which students could win an iPad2 for themselves and $1,000 for their schools.

There is another contest this year held by the National Family Partnership. The prize is nearly the same as a student can win an iPad (upgrade from the iPad2 of last year) for themselves and $1,000 for their K-12 school. Contest details are on the Red Ribbon Blog.

Red Ribbon Week was inspired after the 1985 kidnapping, torturing and killing of a DEA agent named Enrique Camarena. This horrible event happened in Guadalajara, Mexico where Camarena spent four years dealing with drug cartels.

Residents of Camarena’s hometown in California wore red ribbons after this event and this has since become a symbol of drug prevention in order to cut down on these types of crimes.