The authors of the chapters have the common goal of proposing policies and programs that best meet the needs of youth and their families as they address drug-related problems. They criticize drug policies that focus on punishment for those whose economic condition and ethnicity place them at higher-risk for drug abuse, and they focus on strategies that nourish family strengths and provide opportunities for growth. This involves support for families that will enable them to in turn nurture healthy youth. Communities should provide opportunities for youth to be valued in the community and to make significant contributions for the school, family, peer group, and neighborhood. When communities fail to provide the resources that nurture family life and offer opportunities for the positive development of youth, then families and youth suffer; they will then seek means to relieve that suffering, and this may include drug abuse. The factors that contribute to healthy mental development that includes drug-free behavior are resiliency, social competence, self-esteem, and internal locus of control. These factors are increasingly absent among the economically disadvantaged, whether they live in the inner city or the rural hamlet. Given the relationship between the quality of community and economic life and the family life that nurtures youth, policymakers must weigh the cost of current substance-abuse strategies against the benefits and costs of different paradigms. 2 references