SUMMARY
AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION

Substance abuse prevention efforts are likely to be most effective when they are comprehensive in scope. Comprehensive prevention planning for youth includes individual-oriented prevention strategies that provide youth with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to resist the temptation to engage in drug use. Comprehensive prevention planning also includes environmental prevention strategies that change the living environments of all youth so that the availability of substances and community tolerance of substance use are low. As a result of this combination of prevention strategies, youth will have a better chance off remaining drug-free.

This Best Practices introduced several specific prevention strategies targeting alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use, as well as related problems. Using a framework that highlighted the “4 P’s” of marketing, environmental strategies were presented as interventions designed to affect product packaging, placement, promotion, and price.

Environmental prevention strategies can be effective in reducing both the use of substances by youth and reducing the incidence of problems related to substance use. In general, environmental strategies for the prevention of alcohol and tobacco use and related problems have a considerable base of research support demonstrating their effectiveness. By contrast, the research support for environmental strategies targeting illicit drug use is not nearly as vast or as conclusive due to the fact that studies on effectiveness have only recently been initiated.