This booklet, written for adolescents, focuses on the individual's role and responsibility, both to themselves and their friends, in preventing drug abuse problems. Short statements define the influence of peer pressure on prevention, friendship, and intervention. The results of a ninth grade student survey list 22 reasons for using drugs, emphasizing the common themes of mood alteration and escapism. Healthy, positive alternatives to the pressures and frustrations of growing up are suggested. Factual information is given on drugs and their effects, including social drugs, stimulants, depressants, narcotics, mind-changers, and other hallucinogens. Intervention approaches are discussed. National resources on alcohol, drug abuse, and mental health information, a bibliography including National Institute on Drug Abuse publications, and a listing of state agencies dealing with drug abuse prevention, are provided. (BL)