The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) defines prevention in the following way:

"Prevention promotes constructive lifestyles that discourage drug abuse and promotes development of social environments that facilitate drug-free lifestyles. As applied to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD), prevention means keeping the many problems related to the use and abuse of these substances from occurring."

Prevention efforts can enhance protective factors toward reversing or reducing risk factors. Factors associated with greater potential for drug use are called "risk" factors, and those associated with reduced potential for such use are called "protective" factors.

• Chaotic home environments, particularly in which parents abuse substances or suffer from mental illness
• Ineffective parenting, especially with children with difficult temperaments and conduct disorders
• Lack of mutual attachments and nurturing
• Inappropriate shy or aggressive behavior in the classroom
• Failure in school performance
• Poor social coping skills
• Affiliations with deviant peers
• Perceptions of approval of drug-using behaviors in the school, peer, and community environments

• Strong family bonds
• Parental monitoring with clear rules of conduct within the family unit and involvement of parents in the lives of their children
• Success in school performance
• Strong bonds with institutions such as the family, school and religious organizations
• Adoption of conventional norms about drug use