Results revealed that reported lifetime and monthly use of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and alcohol, recognized as gateway drugs, decreased across time for all grades. Also, reported use of the gateway drugs among students in the midwestern suburban community has remained at or below national prevalence rates. Results also indicated that local marijuana use prevalence rates consistently remained below national levels, however over time, local marijuana use followed the same up and down trend patterns as seen in national data. Overall, the results suggest that the intervention has contributed to a delay in experimentation with and use of gateway drugs among youth in this community. Future research is recommended to focus on the relationship between availability, perceptions of harm, and drug use among students. This study examined the effects of the district-wide school/community-based substance abuse prevention initiative on gateway drugs over time given the relationship between the prevalence of these substances and the use of other substances. The study examined prevalence via a multi-stage cross-sectional assessment of substance use among adolescents over a 12-year period after the implementation of the intervention from 1991 to 2003. Tables, figures and references