A major accomplishment in the field of substance abuse prevention has been the professionalization of the field through the effective use of data. With such scarce resources for prevention, it’s vital that planning efforts be focused on those substances and risk/protective factors that are impacting the greatest number of youth in our communities. Today’s data on substance use can better focus our efforts to achieve this goal. This article’s objectives are three-fold: 1) to examine common misperceptions about youth substance use; 2) to provide data about substance use trends, and; 3) to support the use of data in prevention planning.