Provides practitioners with the information they need to prepare their communities for prevention programming & to select & implement drug abuse prevention strategies that effectively address the needs of their local communities. The target audience for this document includes prevention program administrators, prevention specialists, community volunteers, community activists, parents, teachers, counselors, etc. Contents: intro. to selective prevention; intro. to & key elements of the strengthening families program; & implementation of the strengthening families program. Appendixes on skills training programs for parents, children & families.

Includes: Drug Abuse Prevention through Family Based Interventions: Future Research; Familial Factors and Substance Abuse: Implications for Prevention; Family-Focused Substance Abuse (SA) Prevention: What Has Been Learned from Other Fields; Scientific Findings from Family Prevention Intervention Research; A Universal Intervention for the Prevention of SA: Preparing for the Drug-Free Years; Selective Prevention Interventions: The Strengthening Families Program; Parental Monitoring and the Prevention of Problem Behavior: A Conceptual and Empirical Reformulation; and Family Measures in SA Prevention Research.

Ever since the Shanghai convention in 1909, the threat posed to human well-being by drug abuse has led countries around the world to take action to deal with their drug problems. There are wide variations in the policies pursued, but most countries try to reduce both the supply of and the demand for drugs. Unfortunately, there is little research consensus on the respective merits of these two approaches or about the best ways to pursue them. Consequently, control and prevention policies are mostly driven by political considerations, economic realities and cultural expectations, though research has played an important part in formulating and evaluating treatments for drug addiction. This volume reviews studies on drug abuse prevention and treatment strategies under five main areas: 1. Reducing supply - strategies to control the flow of drugs from production to retail distribution; 2. Reducing demand - prevention of drug use at all stages of involvement and consumption levels; 3. Reducing harm - promoting situational risk reduction practices for regular users, addicts and recreational users; 4. Reducing addiction - drug treatment options for various groups in various settings; and 5. Drug policies and prescriptions - focused on debates about prohibition and legalization.

Illustrates the value of combining findings from specific high-quality primary research studies into a cohesive summary that better defines what the science of drug abuse prevention offers to guide future program decisionmaking. Presents a current overview of the efficacy of drug abuse prevention programs (DAPG) and related measurement systems. Defines the techniques employed in meta-analysis of DAPG. Provides guidance in the application of research findings from meta-analysis. Discusses key technical procedures that should be considered in conducting future meta-analysis of drug abuse prevention research.