5th Edition of Addiction World Conference 2026

Abstract

Background & Rationale:
The addiction science field has made extraordinary progress in understanding the neurological, psychological, and social dimensions of substance use disorders. Yet a critical gap persists: the moment before clinical contact. Every evidence-based framework begins at the point of intervention. This presentation begins before it, at the street level where youth drug initiation actually occurs, from the perspective of someone who was there.
Presenter Background:
Keith Hunter is not a researcher who studied drug culture. He lived inside it. Growing up in Miami, Florida, one of the most drug-saturated environments in the United States, he witnessed firsthand the psychology, cultural forces, and social dynamics that draw young people toward substance use. He participated in the street economy that supplies the substances addiction science works to treat. He was subsequently incarcerated, came home, and made an extraordinary decision: to turn that lived

experience into a body of work and a life mission dedicated to reaching young people before the system has to.
He is the author of two books, Federal Pressure and Pressure: Autobiography of a Real Miami OG 'Gigavelli', and hosts a podcast platform that reaches a community no academic journal, clinical intake form, or government survey has ever fully captured.
Presentation Overview:
This session addresses the foundational question that addiction science has struggled to answer from the outside: Why does a young person say yes in the first place? Drawing on his own documented experience, Keith Hunter will provide AWC 2026 attendees with an authentic, unfiltered account of the cultural and psychological forces that make drug initiation feel not just possible but inevitable for young people in high-risk environments.
The presentation will address three core areas:
1. The psychology of initiation — what young people are actually seeking when they first engage with substances, and why traditional prevention messaging fails to intercept that search
2. The street-level supply dynamic — how youth from all backgrounds interact with drug culture, and what that interaction reveals about gaps in current prevention and early intervention models
3. What actually works — the specific elements of intervention, messaging, and human connection that changed his own trajectory, and how those elements can inform more effective prevention frameworks
Relevance to AWC 2026:
This session is uniquely positioned within the AWC 2026 theme of advancing addiction science and care. While the majority of conference sessions will present clinical research and treatment innovations, this presentation offers the primary source intelligence that makes those interventions more effective — the authentic voice of someone who has been the patient, the subject of the research, and the street-level actor that prevention frameworks must ultimately reach. In a conference room in Miami, he will be the only person on stage who has actually been the young person the entire conference is working to save.
Conclusion:
Addiction science cannot fully solve what it only partially understands. Keith Hunter's presentation does not replace evidence-based research — it completes it. His voice represents the data point that no survey has captured, the case study that walked out of the system and built something, and the perspective that will make every clinician, researcher, and policymaker in that room better at their work.