Aims: In most countries, cannabis use rates are highest among young people. Efforts invested in cannabis prevention programmes have had limited success. In part, this may be attributed to a dearth of meaningful discussion in classroom settings on the topic and scarcity of credible resources. Although young people want opportunities to engage in…

Purpose: Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs use typically increases in prevalence and frequency during middle and late adolescence. School health instruction often focusses on providing facts and rarely provides tools for addressing the psychosocial risk factors needed to prevent substance use. The purpose of this paper is to report about…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established School Health Profiles (Profiles) in 1996 to monitor school health policies and practices in secondary schools in states and school districts across the United States. Profiles is a system of surveys conducted biennially in even-numbered years and provides data on the following topics:…

Background: REBOUND is a novel media-based life skills and risk education programme developed for 14- to 25-year olds in school, university or youth group settings. This paper outlines the programme's rationale, curriculum and implementation. It provides information of relevance to researchers, programme developers and policymakers. Methods/design…

This article takes a systematic approach to reviewing substance use prevention programs introduced in elementary school (K-6th grade). Previous studies evaluating such programs among elementary school students showed mixed effects on subsequent substance use and related psychosocial factors. Thirty published evaluation studies of 24 elementary…

Drug use and abuse presents a significant problem to individuals, families, and law enforcement in communities across the United States. Methamphetamine is a particular concern in one rural eastern Missouri county. Much work being done in this county by multiple agencies to decrease methamphetamine production and use. Little attention, however,…

Few after-school programs target alcohol and other drug (AOD) use because it is difficult to encourage a diverse group of youth to voluntarily attend. The current study describes CHOICE, a voluntary after-school program which targeted AOD use among middle school students. Over 4,000 students across eight schools completed surveys and 15%…

The prevention of drug abuse is an especially salient topic for school psychologists and other educational professionals. Schools are the primary setting for providing education and information aimed at the prevention of drug abuse. Previous meta-analyses (Ennett, et al., 1994; West & O'Neal, 2004) indicate that one of the nation's most popular…

Using a randomized controlled effectiveness trial, we examined the effects of Project SUCCESS on a range of secondary outcomes, including the program's mediating variables. Project SUCCESS, which is based both on the Theory of Reasoned Action and on Cognitive Behavior Theory, is a school-based substance use prevention program that targets…

This paper tells the story of the multi-layered translational process of the Drug Resistance Strategies Project. The Drug Resistance Strategies Project provides an exemplar of translational scholarship, translating adolescent narratives about their substance use experiences into an efficacious, substance abuse prevention middle school curriculum.…

Parent drug education is considered a key aspect of drug prevention. Effective communication acts as protective factor for drug misuse in young people. This study is a Participatory Action Research study of "Drugsbridge", a drug education programme that has an emphasis on facilitating intergenerational communication about drugs between parents and…

Although many recommendations have been made that parents become more involved in drug education, little to date has been published about how this can be done. This article explores one model that has been adopted in a high drug-incidence area in southern California and could have relevance for applicability elsewhere. (Author)

Descriptions of the drug abuse program launched by the Newark school system and suggestions of ways the existing drug-prevention program could be made more effective are discussed in this article. (JC)

In response to recent alcohol-related tragedies and to ongoing concern about unacceptable levels of alcohol and other drug use on college campuses, Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Education to identify and promote effective campus-based prevention programs. Since 1999, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded approximately $3.5…

Objectives: Comprehensive training in the area of tobacco control and prevention has not been available to public health students receiving professional degrees. This study describes findings of a project designed to develop and evaluate an integrated approach to the education of Masters of Public Health (MPH) students at the University of Iowa…