This article addresses health promotion and prevention of drug use, reviewing approaches and conceptualizations without specifying determinate classes of drugs and their licitness or illicitness. The objective of this paper is to describe the prevention of drug use and to raise pertinent aspects of drug abuse for the construction of a health promotion strategy. As refers to drug use, Brazil has invested in the formulation of policies for health promotion, protection and recovery, however humanized, inter-sectorial, decentralized, integrated, democratic and active approaches need to be implemented. This review shows the need for more discussions about the prevention of drug use involving educators, parents and the community, in a structured multiple process integrating and involving institutions and sectors in the co-responsibility to promote the health of the population in this sense. This article also shows our concern with finding ways that contribute to the implementation of public policies as refers to drug addiction.