For the majority of adolescents, experimentation with tobacco, alcohol, and drugs represents a brief period of testing limits that is often characteristic of adolescence. For some teens, however, experimentation with alcohol and drugs leads to negative consequences including direct physiological harm, impaired judgment leading to risk-taking and violence, disengagement from school, and the support of illegal drug trafficking that has a profound effect on community life. In addition, adolescent substance use, particularly tobacco, can pave the way for adult addictions.

• Proposition 99, which was approved by California voters in 1988, added an additional 25-cent tax to each pack of cigarettes, and has made an average of $74 million available each year to California’s Tobacco Control Program. The program implemented a major statewide anti-smoking media campaign beginning in the early 1990’s.
• California’s Tobacco Control Program allocates funding to the California Department of Education for school-based Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) programs, locally designed for students in grades four through twelve.
• In 1994, California’s Tobacco Control Program developed the Operation Storefront campaign to stem the proliferation of tobacco advertising and promotion in communities.
• The STAKE (Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement) Act prohibits the sale of or furnishing of tobacco to anyone under 18, requires retailers to check ID of anyone under 18 and post warning signs at sales counters, and authorizes $6,000 fines for violations.
• Title IV-Safe and Drug-free Schools and Communities provides funding for age-appropriate drug and violence prevention and education programs for all K-12 students through linkages between schools and communities.
• The California Mentoring Initiative (CMI), through the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP) was initiated in 1995. CMI works in partnership with many community-based organizations to reduce four major problem areas: alcohol/drug use, teen pregnancy, educational failure, and gangs and violence.
• The California Friday Night Live (FNL) Program, funded by ADP, was established in 1984 to promote a teenage lifestyle free of alcohol and other drugs. FNL’s mission is to build partnerships for positive and healthy youth development which engage youth as active leaders and resources in their communities.
• Club Live is a prevention program aimed at middle school students in California and is an extension of the successful FNL program. It assists students in developing alternatives to using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
• TEENWORK, INC., is a private agency working to provide a forum for youth to share ideas and discuss solutions to the critical issues facing teens today. Every year since 1984, California high school students spend seven months planning a training institute that focuses on substance use prevention and includes broader issues such as pregnancy, gangs, suicide, HIV/AIDS, and recovery. Special consideration is given to recruiting high-risk students. The discussions initiated through this process result in the implementation of programs and activities at the local level.

• Use educational strategies to help youth improve critical life and social skills, including decision making and refusal skills.
• Distribute useful, relevant and effective information to targeted populations, such as policymakers, health providers, health plans, individuals, families, and communities to help them make wise decisions about strategies to prevent youth substance use.

• Continue and intensify mass media campaigns, including Proposition 99 funded anti-tobacco advertisements, to counteract the image appeal of pro-tobacco messages aimed at children and youth.
• Prohibit the sale or giveaway of tobacco products like caps, jackets, or gym bags that carry cigarette or smokeless tobacco product brand names or logos.
• Negotiate with billboard companies to reduce the number of alcohol billboards. Encourage the federal government to address the expansion of alcohol advertising on television and radio stations.

• Reduce youth access to tobacco and alcohol by licensing tobacco vendors; limiting vending machine sales and self-service displays to places where minors are not allowed, such as certain bars and nightclubs; and prohibiting the sale of single cigarettes.
• Mobilize communities to counter drug activity, especially where youth might be present. Advocate for positive community-wide change through legal and regulatory initiatives, such as lowering legal blood alcohol limits for drivers, limiting bar hours, and restricting the number of alcoholic beverage outlets in any given area.
• Establish hotel networks to intervene when underage youth attempt to rent rooms for parties.

• Encourage activities and initiatives that will change community standards and emphasize healthy lifestyles. Promote sobriety as a positive lifestyle choice.
• Provide for the participation of targeted adolescent populations in activities that exclude alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use by youth.

• Develop sufficient resources to meet community needs for appropriate levels of treatment for youth, and special populations of adolescents.
  n Identify and remove barriers that inhibit adolescents from entering treatment.
• Use relevant research to identify and incorporate key variables that contribute to successful treatment outcomes for youth.
• Address the treatment needs of youth in the criminal justice system.
• Improve assessment and early intervention strategies in schools, primary care, family planning, after-school programs, probation, and foster care.
• Encourage the use of comprehensive harm reduction approaches. Promote the use of designated drivers and safe ride programs that provide free or low cost transportation to a safe destination (usually home).