School-based alcohol and other drug prevention

Abstract

The need to prevent the use of alcohol and other drugs is clearly highlighted by the high prevalence rates of these drugs by young people throughout the world and the significant associated harms [6, 8, 12, 82, 115, 123]. The detrimental effects of substance use are robust and include strains on forming and maintaining healthy relationships, disruption to educational and vocational paths, and hindrance to overall social development [37, 76, 155]. In addition, the burden of disease, social costs, and disability associated with this use are considerable [14, 38, 47]