Prevalence of smoking and drug abuse in students of Zahedan high schools

Background: Drug abuse and smoking behavior, particularly in youngsters, affect communities
in terms of health and economy. The present study was carried out with the aim of a survey on drug
abuse and smoking cigarette amongst high school students in Zahedan city.
Methods and materials: The research sample contained 259 girls and 216 boys being randomly
selected using multi-stage clustering method. The average age was 15.8 years for girls and 16.04
years for boys.
Results: The results showed that 7.8% of girls and 25.2% of boys had experienced smoking at
least once. It was found that 0.4% of the female students and 2.3% of male students were used to
regular smoking. Drug abuse (using opiate) was shown to be experienced at least once by 1.6% and
8% of females and males, respectively. The initial smoking was most frequently experienced in age
of 14 years (26.2%), followed by the age of 15 (15.2%).
Conclusions: Smoking and drug abuse in a relatively high percentage of students and decreasing
the age of onset of using these materials arise a major alert. It is concluded that students at this age
require further notice and they should be considered particularly in the control programs involving
cigarette and drug.