Throughout the history of the public health system, several care models have been constructed to guide actions in this field, with particular emphasis on the biomedical model, the community medicine model and the "in defense of life" model. This article deals with the analysis of a drug prevention project in the school environment, conducted in Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul), and discusses the relationship of this proposal with the models of health care. From this experiment, we were able to observe that it is necessary to break with the hegemonic paradigm and to structure drug prevention activity in accordance with alternative models, thereby permitting students, teachers and community to partake on the role of promoters of their own health.
Drug abuse; Health care policy; Prevention