The Teen Marijuana Check-Up (TMCU) was designed with the intention of attracting the voluntary participation of marijuana-using high school students who are neither seeking treatment nor self-initiating change, but are experiencing adverse consequences associated with smoking marijuana. Its delivery as an in-school brief intervention, its marketing as an opportunity to take stock of one’s marijuana use with no pressure to change, the confidentiality protections that are assured participants, and the intervention’s delivery by staff members who are trained in the use of motivational interviewing strategies are all likely key elements of its effectiveness in reaching teens who smoke marijuana. Given the prevalence of regular marijuana use among adolescents and the associated risks for adverse consequences to functioning, effective interventions are needed that are tailored to this population. To date, most such counseling approaches have relied on nonvoluntary participation by adolescent marijuana smokers and the outcomes have been only modestly successful. The TMCU is intended to serve both secondary prevention and early treatment functions for adolescent marijuana users. The objective in designing this approach was to voluntarily attract teens whose attitudes about their use ranged from being content, having some ambivalence, or being largely dissatisfied. The intervention is for teens that are either at risk for developing marijuana disorders or currently experiencing multiple marijuana-related problems. References