School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention: What Works, For Whom, and How?

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, The Drug-Free Schools Act of 1986 fueled the spread of school-based drug prevention across the country. Passed in response to mounting public concern about the high rates of drug use among the nation’s youth, the act sharply increased the federal contribution to state and local drug prevention and required schools to show that they have developed a comprehensive drug education plan before they can receive federal education funds. It also reflected the belief that drug use is a problem threatening adolescents from a wide array of communities and sociodemographic backgrounds. Hence it is best addressed by programs targeted at all children, not just those at highest risk of becoming drug users.