The county's prevention activities generally parallel the types of strategies identified by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. In FY 2002, the Montgomery County Council appropriated $6.74 million to support prevention programs for school-age youth. These funds went to: universal prevention programs designed for all youth ($4.2 million); to selective prevention programs targeted for subgroups of youth and families at higher risk ($1.9 million); and to indicated programs, which target high-risk individuals who are already substance users or who exhibit behaviors or whose living circumstances put them at notably higher risk for alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and/or addiction ($0.5 million). The Office of Legislative Oversight recommended that the council: (1) address substance abuse prevention for school-age youth as a priority inter-agency issue; (2) establish 2-year- and 5-year-goals for substance use reduction among the County's youth; (3) facilitate establishment of a single, senior policy level group to coordinate prevention activities across agencies; and (4) set a long-term policy goal of appropriating funds only to prevention programs and strategies for which there is science-based evidence of effectiveness. Tables, notes, figures, appendices