Use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs among students at a Spanish university

This paper reports characteristics of the use of psychotropic substances by students at a Spanish university, and their relationships with a set of sociodemographic, academic and other variables, as reflected in a 554-member sample (65.9% women, age 18-34 years) that was stratified by sex, academic year and academic area. Results indicated 81.4% of students habitually used alcohol, 53.1% tobacco, and 25.2% cannabis. Among illegal drugs, cannabis was used occasionally by 65.6% of students, cocaine by 12.3%, hallucinogens by 10.5%, designer drugs by 8.3%, and amphetamines by 5.6%. These figures are higher than those among the general Spanish population. The substances considered are used by more males than females, and the age at which drug use begins appears to be decreasing.