Substance Use Services

Prevention Services

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, Behavioral Health Services (BHS) utilizes primary and environmental prevention strategies and actively engages the community, key stakeholders and the public health and public safety sectors to reduce a variety of harms and problems related to substance use through three major countywide prevention initiatives.

  • Binge & Underage Drinking Initiative (BUDI) through the Alcohol Policy Panel works to address the harmful effects of under-age and high-risk drinking behaviors in our communities by changing community policies, practices, and norms regarding the personal use of alcohol and consequences of over-consumption.
  • San Diego County Substance Use and Overdose Prevention Task Force Addresses the overuse and misuse of prescription and illicit drugs and works to prevent overdose deaths by engaging prevention, public health, and public safety partners, other sector partners, and community members to change policy, practices and norms and connect community to prevention, harm reduction, and treatment resources.
  • Marijuana Prevention Initiative (MPI) focuses on reducing youth access and use of marijuana/cannabis products by changing community policies, practices, and norms regarding the personal use of marijuana/cannabis and consequences of over-consumption.

Providing an emphasized focus on these issues allows the County to develop long term, strategic and sustainable prevention plans for each initiative, provide coordination and shared resources where possible, and provide flexible prioritization in each region regarding how each initiative will be tailored to individual community needs.

Prevention Brochures

All programs listed in this site receive funding by contract with the County of San Diego. 

If you have administrative information or to provide feedback about this page, send us an email.

Not sure where to start?

Call the Access and Crisis Line (ACL) at 1-888-724-7240 to speak to an experienced counselor who can help find the right service for you or someone you care about. The ACL is operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with support available in over 200 languages. Live chat and other resources are available through the ACL website or up2sd.org.

If you are experiencing an emergency, please call 911.