The interaction between drug-related behavior and other risk factors predicting delinquency and disease among young people has led to more interest in using persuasive communications in the mass media for drug prevention. Advancements in communications technology offer promising alternatives for delivering drug prevention messages on a large scale. Televised media messages in the form of PSA's aimed at promoting lifestyle behavior changes have been used routinely since the early 1960's. Several formidable obstacles, however, limit the general effectiveness of PSA's among home viewing audiences: (1) PSA's are aired infrequently and outside prime time viewing hours; (2) many PSA's are directed at unidentifiable audience segments; and (3) attitudes, values, and norms of individuals affect their exposure to health-related media messages. Nonetheless, anti-drug campaigns have made significant progress in recent years using PSA's in the mass media. In particular, they have been successful in recruiting and maintaining community support for anti-drug projects and in identifying cohorts at high risk for drug use. Despite the lack of strong empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of anti-drug PSA's in reducing drug- related behavior among young people, the mass media continues to be recognized as a major source of anti-drug information, and the appeal of the mass media to adolescents increases the implications for using PSA's to prevent drug-related behavior among young people. 28 references