Undergraduate students' motivations for the consumption of legal drugs

Verónica Margarita Hernández Rodríguez,Zeyne Alves Pires Scherer

doi:10.1590/s0104-11692008000700011

Verónica Margarita Hernández Rodríguez, Zeyne Alves Pires Scherer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-11692008000700011

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Abstract

This qualitative research aimed at identifying conceptions held by undergraduate students regarding the term motivation, and motives leading them to the consumption of legal drugs. Data were collected through a questionnaire with four open questions, applied to 15 students of a public university in the central region of Mexico. In order to perform the data analysis, answers were classified in two categories: a) Undergraduate students' conceptions regarding the term motivation and b) Undergraduate students' conceptions regarding the motives for consumption. Such analysis indicated that students identify two types of motivations: external and internal. The external motivation includes family, mass media and friends; whereas internal motivation includes personal characteristics, need of belonging, curiosity, pleasure and idleness.

Highlights

Substance consumption is not a new phenomenon. It has been observed since Pre-Hispanic cultures, when people already used addictive plants, with religious, ceremonial and medical connotations
It is worth stressing that one out of two undergraduate students is a smoker, a fact mostly detected in high socioeconomic levels(5)
This study aims to identify how undergraduate students conceive the term motivation and name the motives that lead them to the consumption of legal drugs

Summary

Introduction

Substance consumption is not a new phenomenon It has been observed since Pre-Hispanic cultures, when people already used addictive plants, with religious, ceremonial and medical connotations. They used herbs, concoctions and several medicines for self-treatment and self-care(1). The consumption of “Drugs”(2) (any substance that, as inserted to the body, changes the natural operation of the nervous central system of the subject, besides, it is likely to generate psychological or physical dependence, or both), which are considered legal (alcohol and tobacco) and illegal (marihuana, opium, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroine, etc.), is a national and international public health problem, which generates great expenses in economic, social, political and moral matters, for all consuming communities(3). The national consumption rates in Chile for all socioeconomic levels are at 11% for women and 17% for men, identifying alcohol (70%) as the most consumed drug, followed by marihuana (16.3%). It is worth stressing that one out of two undergraduate students is a smoker, a fact mostly detected in high socioeconomic levels(5)

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