Twenty-nine young people aged 12-13 years considered to be at a high risk of substance abuse primarily because they no longer attend mainstream school participated in the study by completing a questionnaire designed to obtain information on their drug-using behaviours. The evidence in this paper suggests that many of them are already at a high risk for problem drug use compared with their peers in mainstream education. This is heightened by the fact they are excluded from school and are not accessing school-based prevention programmes delivered to their contemporaries at school. The paper concludes by suggesting that additional resources are needed to fully meet their requirements in relation to identifying and delivering appropriate drug prevention strategies.