Social development theory provided the theoretical rationale for the study. Data were obtained from 2,229 randomly selected students in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades from 17 school districts in northeastern Ohio. At all three grade levels, involvement in extracurricular activities and academic performance level were significantly correlated with students' gateway and hard drug use. Consistent with prior research, the strongest correlate of gateway and hard drug use across all grade levels was affiliation with drug-using friends. Having a job after school was marginally related to self-reported gateway drug use at grade level 10. Multiple regression analysis showed that extracurricular involvement and academic performance level make small, but unique contributions to the prediction of adolescents' gateway drug use beyond affiliation with drug-using peers at all three grade levels. The findings of this study suggest that students' academic performance and extracurricular involvement are significantly related to adolescent gateway and hard drug use, but have less predictive significance relative to peer relationships. 1 table and 15 references