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Adolescence is a developmental period of growth and great potential, but it is also a time of risktaking and experimentation including the use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD). While AOD use is a normative behavior among American teenagers, and in many ways a rite of passage to adulthood, not all youth emerge from experimentation unharmed: currently there are 1.7 million youth in this country struggling with a diagnosable substance use disorder SUD; 4. And unfortunately, the number of teenagers choosing to experiment is on the rise. The most recent 5-year AOD use trends among teens have shown increases in current and past year substance use 9, 10. In fact, during the year 2011 more than 1.65 million adolescents were new initiators of substance use 4. The increasing incidence and prevalence of substance use among American adolescents is distressing as youth are 5 times more likely to develop an SUD compared to adults 11, 12. This disease can (and frequently does) follow them for life. More than 90% of adults suffering from addiction meet diagnostic criteria before the age of 22 years. This is a particularly poignant and under-recognized statistic with great prevention implications. Adolescence is THE at-risk period for substance use disorders (SUD). In fact, only about 10% of substance dependence cases occur after adolescence. Thus, successful efforts to prevent or delay substance use during adolescence will clearly be the best, most economical and most enduring way to reduce the many public health and public safety threats associated with AOD abuse and dependence.

There is a price to pay for not providing effective …