Previous research has indicated that over half of all college students and young adults have used an illicit drug at least once during their lifetime. In fact, the college years have been highlighted as a particularly risky period for the development, continuation, and escalation of substance use disorders. While substance abuse prevention programs can be found on almost all college campuses, their effectiveness remains in question as very few have been subjected to empirical evaluation. The most extensively evaluated programming falls in the area of alcohol abuse prevention and many of these interventions have been shown to be effective in drug prevention and treatment with other populations, such as adult drug users. The authors suggest that the alcohol abuse prevention programs that have been systematically evaluated could be adapted to drug prevention efforts with college student populations. The barriers to implementing and evaluating these types of interventions on college campuses are discussed and include administrative and policy challenges. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral approaches for college drug prevention. References