Experience of addiction to drugs in a group of adolescents

Objective: to evaluate the attitude of the adolescents and the magnitude of the drug consumption, both legal and illegal, through a survey, in order to infer the formative needs and to work on a preventive and health´s promotion program.

Subject and methods: an anonymous survey to the students of two Secondary Schools of the health area. Four hundred and forty-five surveys have been made to adolescents between 14 y 18 (mean: 16.04), 13 were excluded because of insufficient information.

Results: one hundred and eighty-four adolescents (45%) say that they have smoked in the last 6 months, 217 have drunk alcohol (64%), 111 have taken cannabis (44%), 21 cocaine (9%) and pills (MDMA, amphetamines) (7%). Twenty-two percent of the adolescents have no taken any of these substances. As for the consideration of those products as drugs, they all agree that the heroin is a drug, but that was not so clear in the case of the rest, with the next percentages: cocaine (98%), pills (98%), hashish (96%), tobacco (80%) and finally alcohol (64%).

Conclusions: alcohol is the most consumed drug by these adolescents and it is what they consider the least as a drug. The same happens, in a lesser extent, with tobacco and hashish. It´s necessary to give the adolescents true information about the danger and consequences of the "legal drugs".