The Prevalence of at Least One-Time Substance Abuse among Kerman Pre-university Male Students

Background: Substance abuse is one of the main health problems in Iran and awareness about its spread and procedure of spread in the society, particularly the susceptible society of students, is very important with regard to the population pyramid of Iran. Methods: This study was performed by cross-sectional method. The sampling size was 610 male students in pre-university grade by a probabilistic cluster sampling. Our research instrument was the WHO questionnaire. Findings: The experience of smoking cigarettes was seen in 34.6% of the students, 51.5% used hookah, 37.7% drank alcohol, 40.7% used non-prescribed tranquilizers, 10.2% used high-dosage painkillers, 6.6% used ecstasy, 6.7% hashish, 4.9% heroin, 8.7% opium and 9.7% used Pam or chewable tobacco.The first age of experiencing smoking cigarette was 14.0, hookah 13.9, alcohol 14.6, tranquilizers 13.1, high-dosage painkillers 15.3, ecstasy 17.0, hashish 16.7, heroin 16.7, opium 16.7 and using chewable tobacco 15.3 years. The improper use of ecstasy pills, opium, heroin and chewable tobacco was more in governmental schools compared with non-profit school centers.There was a relationship between the low educational level of the father and consuming alcohol, strong intoxicants, heroin, opium, pam and excessive use of cigarettes. On the other hand, there was a relationship between the low educational level of the mother with using cigarettes, hookah, alcohol, tranquilizers, strong painkillers, ecstasy, heroin, opium, pam and excessive usage of cigarettesConclusion: According to this study, in spite of the fact that drug abuse is at a warning rate, the tendency toward hookah, tranquilizers and alcohol is noticeable. Keywords: Sbstance abuse, Students, Kerman, Iran .