Major Findings #2

Youth Already Using Cigarettes, Alcohol, And Marijuana Significantly Reduced Their Use of Substances After Joining a Prevention Program

In high-risk communities, programming must prove effective with youth who have already begun to use substances, not just deter those who have not yet started. As the graph below shows, CSAP-funded programs proved highly effective in reducing substance use among participants who reported using cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana in the 30 days before entering their study program.

Trends in 30-Day Substance Use Among Youth Who Initiated Substance Use Prior to Program Entry (n = 1,235)

Note: Youth already using cigarettes, alcohol, and mariuana significantly reduced their use of substances after joining a prevention program.

• Substance use by participants who reported prior drug use was 10 percent less at exit than comparison youth, and use levels were 22 percent below comparison youth 18 months later.
  
  
• The positive impact of program participation on substance use was consistently strong across the three most com-monly used substances among youth. Program participants’ rates of use in the last 30 days were an average 17 per-cent below the rates for comparison youth at exit and at 6 and 18 months after program exit. For alcohol, partici-pants rates were an average 13 percent below rates for comparison youth across the three outcome time points; and participant rates of marijuana use in the last 30 days were an average of 18 percent below those of comparison youth at program exit and 6 and 18 months after exit.

These findings indicate that the CSAP-funded prevention programs provide effective interventions for youth who have already been identified as initiating use.