Part I a Selected Review of What Works in the Area of Prevention Introduction

In March 2001, the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI), in collaboration with the World Health Organization, Geneva began a six-month collaborative project to examine “what works” in the prevention of substance use-related harm, with an emphasis on developing countries. The review of the literature was international in scope, but given the short time frame for the project, was selective rather than exhaustive in its exploration of relevant issues. For the purposes of the project, primary prevention was defined as “strategies that aim to prevent the uptake of psychoactive substance use, or delay the age at which use begins” (WHO, 1997, p. 138), whereas secondary prevention “refers to interventions that aim to prevent substance use becoming problematic among people already using psychoactive substances, which limit the degree or duration of individual or social damage caused, and which assist users who may wish to stop using” (WHO, 1997, p. 139).