School drug education programming: in search of a new direction.

School drug abuse prevention programs represent an enormous educational resource. Recent perceptions of an epidemic of drug abuse among the nation's youth have fueled the escalation in expenditures for drug prevention programming. An important question that needs to be addressed concerns whether broad ranging drug education efforts directed at all public and private school students are efficient and effective uses of available resources? After a brief survey of the evolution of drug education programming in the U.S., this article examines recent longitudinal research regarding the antecedents of drug abuse among young people. Based on this research, suggestions are made for a new approach to drug education programs which would direct intensive interventions at the minority of youth who are identifiable in early childhood as particularly susceptible to problems with drug abuse.