Part One discusses the need for a community profile to raise awareness of patterns of drug abuse and to focus preventive actions. The method of obtaining data on existing community patterns of drug abuse and prevention relies solely on the use of data that already exist within the community. Advantages of tapping existing data include increased potential for obtaining information about many aspects of community impact, lower cost and time expenditure, and the ability to observe trends in the data immediately. A case study of the development of a community drug abuse profile is provided for the Portland Regional Drug Initiative (RDI) Task Force (Oregon). Part Two of the manual describes the steps for assembling a package of community indicators, each accompanied by a case study of Portland's RDI effort. The first step is to conduct a "brainstorming" session to generate a list of possible indicators of community impacts caused by alcohol and other drug abuse. The next step is to obtain data on the potential indicators, followed by a screening of indicators according to availability of information. Other steps are to look for regional and national comparisons, reconsider the list, identify the best indicators, and choose the best approximations. Part Three suggests guidelines for using the information. Appended list of 17 suggested readings and an example of how to disaggregate profile data