Why and Where? the Psychoactive Substances Use Among University Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Statistics on the consumption of new substances are incomplete and difficult to carry on. The difficulties are related to the great speed at which these substances are introduced on the market and subsequently declared illegal and banned.

Purpose of the Study

The study wants to identify the reasons for consuming psychoactive substances and the places where they usually do that. The research focused on higher educational students.

Results

The students' opinion regarding the motivation revealed the following data: curiosity (30,04%), rebelliousness (12,56%), peer influence (23,77%), pleasure (30,72%), addiction (9,42%) and personal problems (25,11%). More than one third of the subjects saw consumers on the university campus (student apartments, clubs or discos on the campus or inside the faculty). This consumption is recreational. Four main factors which motivate it may be identified: the desire to experiment the sensations produced by the use of such substances, weakness, rebelliousness and peer influence. Life inside the university campus obviously reunites and reinforces these four factors.

Conclusions

The reasons are various: those who have used them at least once claim to have had external motivation (their peers and curiosity regarding a new experience), whereas the participants who declared that they have never used this type of psychoactive substances associate their consumption to internal causes (weakness and pleasure). The lower rate regarding the consumption in schools, schoolyards and university building prove that a possible motivation for non-consumption is the extrinsic motivation: prohibition and penalty applied by the educational environment.