ABSTRACT

This concluding article first reviews environmental and public policy approaches to prevention not covered in the prior articles. Next, it provides a scheme for conceptualizing the various approaches to prevention in relation to the Public Health Services prevention model—the Host/Agent/Environment Triad. The difficulty in prioritizing prevention approaches and six major areas of research needed before this can be accomplished are discussed. The article concludes with speculation about the future of prevention, based on possible positive and negative changes in society and drug use patterns, and finally, recommendations are made for the most promising approaches.