The Alcohol and Drug Framework is based on a comprehensive planning approach and employs empirical methods to determine needs and structured processes to set priorities. The framework advocates planning on the basis of the best research findings and attempts to apply these in the community setting. Further, the framework is intended to retain the benefits of local participation and decisionmaking and to overcome tendencies toward the lack of objectivity and partisan manipulation of results. Pilot testing revealed two broad areas of difficulty, hidden agendas and conceptual confusion. Hidden agendas manifested themselves in three ways: historical animosities from past interactions, philosophical divergences, and nonparticipation. Conceptual confusion resulted because participants preferred to generalize from personal and anecdotal experiences and skeptically viewed researchers as trying to capture reality through numbers. Recommendations for future planning efforts focus on carefully framing terms of reference, developing an educational component for the planning framework, identifying agendas, establishing an orientation toward impact objectives, orienting priorities toward consensus, and aligning recommendations with agency mandates. 5 references