1711 – Addiction among young moroccan students of a vocational training institute

Abstract

The internship system of some institutes and adolescence period could constitute a favorable medium to develop addiction behaviors among students. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of addicted students of an Institute of the vocational training in city of Mohammedia (North-West of Morocco) and the kind of substances used in this addiction. An epidemiological study is conducted among 460 students of this institute. These students aged from 18 to 26 years, are individually questioned about their consumption of different kinds of drugs. The obtained results show that only 100 boys speak freely of their consumption of drugs and/or alcohol and only 6 girls confess to be smokers (tobacco) including 2 consumers of drugs. Indeed, the drug most commonly used is cannabis rolled into cigarettes (Hashish). These drugs are used regularly at least once a day and especially at night before bed to facilitate sleep. The kinds of substances used depend also on socio-economic level of students; the students from rich families consume up to 12 joints a day against some puffs of joint shared by many consumers for poor students. In addition, the poor students consume some local preparation called “maajoune” or “cala”. Alcohol consumption is casual during weekends or ceremonies. This study is an preliminary investigation that lighted the problem of addiction among students in this vocational training institute. So, deeper researches must be done in order to determine the factors causing and/or influencing this kind of pathologic behavior.