Drug use among university students in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

A survey of drug use carried out from April 1984 to May 1985 at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, showed that of 2,475 undergraduate students surveyed, 588 respondents, or 23.8 per cent, abused drugs at some time in their lives. Drug use was somewhat more common among males (25.3 per cent) than among females (21.5 per cent). Among the drug users, the use of cannabis ranked first (41.2 per cent), followed by amphetamines (27.4 per cent), cocaine (12.2 per cent), tranquillizers (12.2 per cent), barbiturates (5.6 per cent), morphine and heroin (0.8 per cent) and lysergic acid diethylamide (0.5 per cent). Of the total number of respondents, 10 per cent were current habitual drug users, while 13.8 per cent had at some time been drug users but were no longer using drugs at the time of the survey. Of 23 postgraduate students surveyed, 10 respondents, or 43.5 per cent, used either cannabis, amphetamines or tranquillizers.