The uses of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs contribute to a myriad of health and social problems. Through careful analysis of these substance-related problems, their underlying moderating and mediating factors, and current efforts to address these factors, States should be able to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their substance abuse prevention systems. Currently, States and communities vary considerably in their capacity and approaches to using epidemiological, other survey, and archival data to select and target prevention efforts. These data do exist at the national, State, and local levels, and more efficient and effective strategies to assemble and apply these prevention-relevant data to State and local planning and monitoring efforts are needed. Pressing issues include determining which data elements exist and how they can be efficiently assembled, providing guidance and technical assistance/support to states and local communities to effectively use these data, and developing Federal, State and local structures and processes to promote the use of data-driven prevention planning models. To address these needs, CSAP and NIDA are partnering to evaluate the results ofthe SPF. Thus, a primary goal of this effort is to systematically assess the utility of epidemiological data, collected at the Federal, State, regional and local levels, for optimizing the use of available substance abuse prevention resources in States and communities
