This article outlines factors to consider when planning prevention, treatment or abstinence maintenance interventions for drug abuse, especially marijuana abuse, in the schools. It discusses the literature on the effectiveness of anti-drug campaigns on drug use, reviews the spectrum of mental health interventions, discusses the ramifications for their use in schools' work to intervene in drug use, provides examples of programming and examines roles that utilize psychologists to impact marijuana use in schools through prevention, early intervention, treatment and abstinence maintenance. Much of the school-based prevention and intervention literature is generic on the subject of 'drugs'. We have tried to be specific to marijuana use when possible; however, few programs targeted only marijuana, many targeted alcohol and other drug use.
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