As in other fields in which the evidence-based practice “movement” has emerged [2, 3], policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in the substance abuse arena have discovered what many perceive to be a chasm between research and practice [4]. Researchers examining the relationship between “science” and “practice” often found practice to be wanting. For example, Ringwalt and colleagues [5] found that 82% of schools in a national sample of middle schools had adopted one or more substance abuse prevention curricula, but only 27% were using a curriculum that had been shown to be effective in prior research (also see Gottfredson and Wilson [6]). Nelson and colleagues [7] found relatively slow uptake by colleges and universities of research-based national recommendations for addressing high risk drinking by college students. Moreover, it was argued that even when evidence-based approaches had been adopted, they were not being implemented with fidelity to the model on which they were based [8].
