This is a retrospective study on teenagers from 14 to 17 years of age
based on data from the National Survey on Drug Addiction conducted in
1988. The aim of this study was to discover the factors linked to drug
consumption among Mexican urban teenagers. This paper reports prevale
nce rates (PR), raw and adjusted by gender as well as Cornfield's inte
rvals (CI) of 95 per cent. For women, factors linked to drug use were:
alcohol consumption (PR 6.5, CI: 1.5-28.3); father drug user (PR 3.2,
CI: 1.1-9.5). For men, factors linked to drug use were: age (PR 3.2;
CI: 1.5-7.4); non religious practice (PR 2.7, CI: 1.2-6.4); acquaintan
ces who are users of marihuana, cocaine or heroine-opium (PR 12.2, 6.6
and 7.0 respectively); and if the father, a brother or another relati
ve are drug users (PR 4.1, 7.1 and 3.5 respectively). These findings s
how important gender differences in drug consumption patterns and link
ed factors. This paper brings out useful information for a complete un
derstanding of this problem in Mexico.