Based on the literature review, the author concludes that measures of drug abuse prevention must influence both the intensity of the exposure to drugs and to life experiences that foster drug use. If predisposition to drug use and misuse is a corollary of the habitual model of coping with and adapting to reality, then research and intervention should focus on the interface between life experience and drug use. Concrete measures may help people to build up a perspective and motivation for life changes, implying a modification of their attitudes toward and patterns of substance use. Such changes might be fostered by providing individuals with ideas for alternative rewarding activities and, correspondingly, acquainting them with new social settings. Proposing and involving them in new identity-relevant experiences is also helpful, along with helping them to vary daily routines and thus improve their subjective sense of control over life. Other proposed prevention activities are the promotion of a nonclinical view of remission, the provision of institutional structures in which health problems are treated, routinely checking for health problems that may be due to substance abuse, and improving awareness of possible ways whereby people might refrain from or avoid substance abuse. 22 references