[An approach to the assessment of the effectiveness of a drug use prevention program in secondary education in Andalusia].

This article examines the analysis of drug use among Secondary Education students in Andalusia from two different studies: the Health Behavior in School-aged Children Study (HBSC), in its 2006 edition, and a study assessing the implementation of the Prevenir para Vivir ("Prevent to Live") drug use prevention program in the education field. To this end, on the one hand the paper analyzes the use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis among Andalusian adolescents on the HBSC Study, and on the other, selects two groups of adolescents to examine and compare their drug use: a group from the HBSC Study who had not participated in any drug use prevention program and in whose schools the staff had not received training in relation to these issues (called HBSC Control Group), and a group of adolescents who had participated in the Prevenir para Vivir drug use prevention program working with specialized staff (called Prevenir para Vivir Experimental Group). The results indicate, first, higher levels of drug use in older students than in younger ones; and, second, on comparing the two groups, that adolescents who have received drug prevention programs with specialized staff are not always those most likely to present healthier drug use. These results must therefore be interpreted as offering only limited support to drug use prevention programs.