The paper discusses the merits of community-based drug abuse prevention; reviews the background and nature of drug use among youth who are at inordinately high risk for using and encountering problems associated with drugs; and offers an approach to intervening with high-risk youth to prevent drug use and its attendant problems. The community-based preventive intervention approach includes relevant theory, applicable principles and specific strategies. The article discusses results from community-based prevention interventions, and summarizes the strengths and limitations of that approach to combating problems of drug use among high-risk youth. Community-based intervention has advantages over school-based intervention for the following reasons: (1) It avoids the problem of persuading school administrators and teachers to release class time for an intervention; (2) Children in community centers choose to be there, rather than their mandated attendance at school; (3) Substance experimentation usually occurs outside of school and in the community; (4) Community centers have access to a more varied age group of youth; and (5) Many of the youth most at risk for drug use do not attend school regularly or drop out altogether. References