Advocacy and awareness campaigns developed as reaction to evolving socioeconomic and political landscapes. Early campaigns used moral objectivism to promote inflexible public policies targeting antidrug and antidrug user rhetoric. This rhetoric can be traced back to a few prominent figures whose philosophies influenced subsequent generations of policy makers and multi-media campaigns well into the twenty-first century. Cultural flashpoints of drug-related human tragedy were used as cautionary tales and examples of moral failure. Modern research has recently highlighted the limited utility of the antidrug and zero tolerance tactics. Newer approaches focus on harm reduction by addressing the behavioral and environmental drivers of substance use.