Although concern about adolescent drug use has grown over the past two decades, strategies for controlling use have not kept pace. Project ALERT (Adolescent Learning Experiences in Resistance Training), a school-based program, specifically targets cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, the so-called gateway drugs. It is based on the social influence…

This report describes an experimental program developed by the RAND Corporation to prevent or reduce the use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana by adolescents. Section 1 introduces Project ALERT and presents major findings and conclusions from a study which assessed the program's effects at several points over a period of 15 months in 30…