Background : Recently in Korea, the rate of addictive drug abuse is rapidly increasing in men on salary, housewives, and even in adolescents, who have been considered to be free from drugs, which presents a serious problem to the society. Especially, the habituation to gateway drug, such as cigarettes and alcohol, before 15 years oldx would lead to the increased possibility of other drug abuse, including illicit drugs. Thereupon in this study, we intended toreview, the effect of adolescents´ smoking on the drug abuse and deviated behaviors.
Methods : On September, 1997, randomly selected were 12 classes, on the basis of 2 classes per grade, from the two schools which was located each in Seoul and Bucheon. And survey was done on 610 students with nonnominal, self reported questionnaire.
Results : The rate of adolescent smoking was 28.1% in male students and had increasing tendency of "the higher the grades, the higher the smoking rate"(17.0% in the 1st gade , 31.5% in the 2nd grade , 35.9% in the 3rd grade). The smoking rate of female students was 12.3%. From the 2nd grade of middle school to the 2nd grade of high school was the critical period when the smoking habit was initiated in almost 90% of the students. The experiencing rates of drug abuse in studied subjects were as follows : drinking(79.0%), stimulants(4.8%), sedatives(4.1%), hypnotics(3.1%), glue sniffing(1.5%), butane gas(0.7%), marijuana/hemp(0.2%). They were higher in the smoking group than in the nonsmoking group, showing statistical significances in most items except hypnotics and marijuana/hemp. Also similar results were shown in deviated behaviors between the groups.
Conclusions : With the concerted efforts of family, school, society and nation, we as family physicians should make efforts to delay and prevent adolescents´ smoking, which is a gateway to drug abuse and deviated behaviors, and to increase people´s recognition of health risks caused by smoking, and to pro-vide proper program for adolescents to stop smoking.() Korean Acad Fam Med 1999;20: 386-400)
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