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Examines an Institute of Medicine report that explored social and behavioral research to devise multipronged intervention strategies using the theories of argumentation of Chaim Perelman. Attributes inherent to argumentation; Categories of audiences; Actions characteristic of public health interventions.

The process of evaluating the Australian National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) is described. The campaign consists of activities in education, treatment, research and legislative controls. Because of the complex nature of the campaign, a range of evaluation activities was used, including activity monitoring, process and outcome evaluations and the establishment of an expert task force to undertake an assessment of the overall impact of the first three years of the campaign. The conduct of the task force's approach is described and some positive and negative lessons are discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]