Family relationships and primary prevention of drug use in early adolescence.

If it is true, as Calafat affirms (1998), that European culture contains within itself a great preventive potential because of its organization, social structure, culture, family organization and a continuing humanist conception and solidarity, it is also true that this potential has not been realised to decrease the consumption of substances, licit and illicit that continue to increase in our societies. Also the non-existence or the lack of objectivity of the preventive interventions, formed an alliance with the difficult appearance and development of true policies of primary prevention of drug addictions and has been contributing to this situation. In spite of this, several years of studies have been carried out with a view to determining the causes and factors conditioning the use and abuse of illicit substances. Knowledge of the reasons which lead someone to start using (experiment), then to move on to regular and/or recreational uses, and finally to become an addict, is vital, since it can provide the framework for the development and implementation of different prevention strategies.