OBJECTIVE: To compare drug use between college students and the general Brazilian population, as well as with American college students' drug use, identifying possible usage differences related to cultural interference. METHODS: To compare lifetime drug use between target populations, public data collected from statistical surveys conducted with Brazilian college students and the general population were used, as well as surveys conducted with American college students. The surveys' confidence intervals (95% CI) were subjects of comparison. RESULTS: Drug use is more frequent among American college students, who use more tobacco, tranquilizers, marijuana, ecstasy, hallucinogens, cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin than Brazilian college students. In contrast, Brazilian college students use nearly the double of inhalants than American college students. This pattern of use is repeated in the analysis of intra-gender differences. Add to this that Brazilian college students seem to engage more frequently in drinking alcoholic beverages and using marijuana, tranquilizers, inhalants, hallucinogens and amphetamines than their peers in the general Brazilian population. CONCLUSIONS: Knowing the particularities of drug use among college students is of paramount importance for the early detection of consumption. Investments in this segment and gender differences should be considered in preventive policies, as well as developing strategies of consumption reduction and control, such as screening programs and brief intervention, due to better cost-effectiveness.
Ethanol; epidemiology; gender differences; psychoactive substance use disorder
