Young people with multiple and complex needs do not represent a large proportion of people with significant drug and alcohol or mental health problems, but the harms they experience reverberate across their lifetimes and, as often as not, impact negatively on the lives of their own children. It is this persistent, inter-generality of harms that demands an effective response.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) have only recently been recognised as a public health issue in Australia. Greater clarity is needed in the messages provided to communities about alcohol use in pregnancy.

What evidence is there to show that school-based drug prevention programs can be part of the solution to Australia's 'alcohol problem'?