Foreward

Leaders of community-based organizations, concerned citizens, policymakers, and researchers agree that substance abuse prevention is crucial to the Nation's health. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (CSAP/SAMHSA) understands that prevention planners have limited time and resources to search for and obtain information that is crucial for developing and implementing their programs. To apply state-of-the-art prevention knowledge to the development of their programs, prevention planners need this information in a timely and effective manner. The CSAP PreventionAlert Series was designed to meet this challenge. PreventionAlerts inform and educate practitioners about the field of prevention in a convenient, accessible format.

Through summaries and excerpts from CSAP monographs, research articles, and other publications, PreventionAlerts help CSAP customers synthesize, transfer, and promote prevention knowledge and technologies on a variety of intervention strategies. PreventionAlerts can quickly and efficiently report on a study, transfer knowledge, or provide practical guidance on a particular finding.

One of the most promising trends highlighted in this second volume of "PreventionAlert--The Call to Action" is the reduction in marijuana abuse among our Nation's youth. After rising from 1992 to 1997, it declined between 1998 and 1999. Unfortunately, during the same period, smoking among youth has been on the rise, and alcohol abuse has remained essentially unchanged. Youth who abuse alcohol and tobacco are more likely to abuse illicit drugs as well. Concerned adults, from scientists and practitioners in the field of substance abuse prevention to parents and volunteer mentors, are striving to change these practices for the better.

This PreventionAlert Compilation is an inventory of PreventionAlerts from the 1999 fiscal year. It is designed to help decision makers understand what works and to help them select and implement successful prevention strategies. CSAP is committed to providing leadership in substance abuse prevention. We are confident that, based on continuing research and evaluation, we will be able to produce further articles and publications highlighting the successes of Prevention Works!

Karol Kumpfer, Ph.D. Director Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Nelba R. Chavez, Ph.D. Administrator Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration