Preventing substance use: how and when should prevention start?

Prevention includes every attempt made to reduce or delay the desire to use substances. Prevention should operate on multiple levels and begin at an early age. However, methods like providing information on the consequences of substance use, attempting to frighten people into not trying substances by presenting substance use in the blackest possible terms, and explicitly forbidding such use have proven largely ineffective.
Prevention should really be about how we live our daily lives. It must transcend the passive provision of information, and aim at developing and cultivating an addiction-free approach to life which respects the individual and their needs.