Hassan Bin Usman, Iffat Atif, Talal Bin Pervaiz, Ali Bin Muhmammad, Arsalan Satti, Syed Imran Bukhari.
Practices and reason of recreational drugs use among college and university students of rawalpindi and islamabad.
Isra Med J Jan ;9(1):09-14.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the practices and reasons of usage of recreational drugs among college and university students of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. STUDY DESIGN: A Descriptive cross sectional study st st PLACE AND DURATION: 1 March 2015 to 1 August 2015 METHODOLOGY: A total of 500 college and university students both males and females participated in this study, selected through simple random sampling technique. The close ended structured questionnaire included knowledge about recreational drugs, their harmful effects and reasons for consuming these drugs. Data was analyzed using SPSS and chi square was applied to establish relationship between different variables. RESULTS: Majority (90.6%) of the students already had knowledge about the recreational drugs, the main source being friends and class fellow for male students and internet and media for females. About 92% males and 93% females knew that recreational drug use is prohibited on religious basis. Cigarette, shisha and recreational drugs use was more common in male students in comparison with female students, the main reason for using recreational drugs being peer pressure (p=0.051). The major prevalence of recreational drugs use was found between 16 to 20 years (p=0.003). The main obstacle of quitting the use of recreation drug was the influence of friends. The majority of students (63%) considered lung cancer and oral cancer as the most common hazard of recreational drug use. CONCLUSION: The use of recreational drugs in both male and female students is soaring in our society. The main predisposing factors are peer pressure and parent's negligence which play an important role in promoting these practices.

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