There is all kinds of data out there that shows that young students use alcohol and drugs more than any other age group. More teens die from prescription drugs than heroin and cocaine combined. In 2013, more high school seniors used marijuana regularly than cigarettes. Twenty two percent of seniors in high school smoked marijuana compared to sixteen percent who came out and said they smoked cigarettes. This study was done across some major high schools in the United States. Almost one third of all teenagers who live in the United States where there are medical marijuana laws are able to get their marijuana using other people’s prescriptions (O’Malley & Johnston, 2007). Adderall is a fairly new drug that is becoming a popular drug among high school students. Adderall is often prescribed to treat ADHD (Veliz, Boyd & McCabe, 2013). The National Institute on Drug Abuse started to inquire about the perception of steroids use among high school students. Over fifty percent of high school students in North America did not think regular steroid use is harmful. By the eighth grade, thirty percent of adolescents will have consumed alcohol. Fifteen percent will have smoked cigarettes, and seventeen percent will have used marijuana (O’Malley & Johnston, 2007). All these facts point to one thing; there is a serious substance use problem in both middle and high school. It is revealed to us in many studies that teens who learn about all the risks associated with drug use from parents, teachers etc. will become more likely not to use drugs. Throughout this paper, some effective strategies will be mentioned on how to best deal with the substance abuse problem in middle and high school. Schools have been dealing with issues around substance abuse for many many years. Schools have invested in specialized services to try and solve this problem of substance abuse in middle and high school for the last fifteen to twenty years (Zili, 2014). A lot of attention is placed on the concepts of risk and protective factors. The way these factors can be influenced is by early identification and intervention. Schools are the ideal setting for early identification and intervention. In addition, a child’s connection to school is seen as one of the most significant protective factors for substance abuse. Schools implementing a variety of early intervention strategies will vastly help young people. Examples of some risk factors would be economic disadvantage, social or cultural discrimination, availability of illegal substances. Some risk factors in school would be poor attachment to school, poor school performance and difficulty at transition points (ex. going from middle to high school). Some protective factors in school would be the ability to genuinely experience emotions, good literacy and capacity for problem solving (Joint Consortium for School Health, 2009). The early use of drugs by youth can increase their chance of developing an addiction. Drugs have detrimental affects on the brain which can lead to developing an addiction and other serious health and mental problems (Anthony & Petronis, 1995). Therefore preventing the use of drugs in middle and high school is very important. A way to look at it is, if we can prevent youth from experimenting with drugs in school, we can prevent future drug addictions. The risk of drug abuse is increased during the transition phases in an individual’s life. In early adolescence, when children are moving from elementary to middle school, they are faced with many new hurdles and challenges. This is a time where they will be exposed to all the different kinds of abusable substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana etc (Anthony & Petronis, 1995). National drug use surveys indicate some children are already abusing drugs by age twelve or thirteen. When the transition f