Prevalence and patterns of drug use among high-school students: a replicated study

A survey of high-school students in Delhi, carried out in 1975, revealed that 34.3 per cent of respondents used psychoactive drugs in the preceding year. The percentage of users of psychoactive substances other than alcohol and tobacco was 15.5 per cent. The percentage prevalence rates by substance ranked as follows: tobacco (35.1), alcohol (26.2), cannabis (12.0), tranquillizers (8.9), amphetamines (5.8), sedatives (4.9) and opium (1.3). The survey was replicated in the same classes of students in 1976. It revealed that the non-response vote was slightly lower, as was also involvement with drugs, though the difference between prevalence rates of drug use in the two years was not statistically significant.