A greater understanding of factors that promote recruitment and retention of adolescents in drug treatment programs in general and drug treatment research in particular is critical to the success of these programs. Both client and program characteristics appear to exert considerable influence on the ability of programs to successfully recruit and retain adolescent clients. With respect to the program, inclusion and exclusion criteria based on experimental design, treatment approach, and practicalities of implementation may be responsible for the exclusion of a substantial percentage of potential clients. With respect to the client, factors such as ethnicity appear to influence the recruitment of adolescents in drug treatment and factors such as drug use severity, pregnancy or parenting status, presence of psychiatric comorbidity, delinquent behavior, sexual activity, and internal locus of control appear to decrease the likelihood of retaining adolescents in drug treatment. In addition, factors such as age and school dropout status influence the likelihood of successful recruitment and retention. The authors conclude that drug treatment programs for adolescents can improve both recruitment and retention efforts by making greater use of adolescent social support networks. The Positive Adolescent Life Skills (PALS) Project in California is described as a program combining cognitive and behavioral training to improve social skills and restructure adolescent social networks. Basic guidelines for referral to PALS are listed, client and therapist characteristics are noted, and the recruitment and retention of adolescents in PALS are discussed. 52 references and 6 tables