Aims: to describe consumption, knowledge and attitudes towards alcohol, tobacco an "illicit drugs" amongst teenagers aged 12-15 years.
Design: cross-sectional study. RECRUITMENT: high schools from Barcelona area.
Participants: 407 studies of ESO (Secondary education) aged 12-15, academic year 2007-2008. SURVEY MEASURES: demographic characteristics, alcohol, tobacco and drug use, opinion and information about them. It was an ad hoc questionnaire of 22 items, anonymous and filled in by each student.
Results: the sample (n = 348) consisted of 50% of women and 50% of men. Mean age: 13.91 years old. The largest group was 14 years old. 35,34% of pupils had tried tobacco, 55,17% alcohol, 9,8% cannabis, 1% cocaine and 0,5% synthetic drugs. 72,41% tried them because they were curious. 40% did not consider alcohol as a drug. Tobacco and alcohol were accessible in more than 85% of the cases. The main source of information comes from the media 49,75%.
Conclusions: adolescents start tobacco consumption between 12-13 years, alcohol at 13, cannabis at 14 synthetic drugs at 13 and cocaine between 14 and 15. The most used substances are alcohol and tobacco and they were not considered drugs by more than half of the surveyed. They believe availability is high. More than half of the sample would like to receive more information about drugs.