[Prevalence of the drug consumption among Chilean university students]

Drug abuse is one of the main public health problems and mostly involves young people.

To determine the prevalence of drug consumption among university students and its associated social factors.

A questionnaire exploring consumption of drugs and social-demographic, economic and religious variables, was applied to 1577 third year students aged 22 ± 2 years (54% females) of a public university.

Sixty eight percent of the students were of middle socioeconomic class, 71 % belonged to some religion and 29% declared themselves as agnostic. Ninety six percent drank alcohol at least once and 29% never smoked. Among illicit drugs, marijuana was consumed by 22% followed by cocaine in 5.3%o, hallucinogenic drugs in 2.6 % >, inhalants in 2.3% > and cocaine free base in 1.4%). Six percent consumed stimulants and 13.8%>, sedatives. A higher economic income facilitated drug consumption and the adscription to a religion was protective against it.

Alcohol is the most commonly consumed drug, and is the substance that generates more problems to students.