Factors related to drug abuse among Iranian university students

Questions related to the use of narcotics were administered to 607 students attending four Iranian universities: Pahlavi University, the University of Tehran, Isfahan University, and Aryamehr University. Twenty-four percent of the students reported that they have used drugs at some time, although only 11% of the students have used drugs more than three times in their lives. Hashish was the most frequently used drug, having been used by 54% of the students who have used narcotics. Ninty percent of the students prefer to ingest the drugs by smoking them. A majority of the students (59%) said that they use drugs for pleasure or to increase sociability. Use of drugs was found to be significantly related to sex, age, number of years of university attended, and father's education. Although proportionately more males than females use drugs, they do not appear to differ significantly from the females in the type of drugs used or the frequency of use. Drug use was not significantly related to the parents' socio-economic status or parents' use of drugs. Exposure to drug use in the university seems to be more closely related to drug use than does parental influence.