Socio Demographic Profile of Late Childhood and Adolescence Abusing Cannabis

Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adulthood. Along with many other conflicts, students atthis age group are likely to encounter drug abuse for the first time. Identifying the socio demographic profilewill help in prevention of substance use disorder to some extent. Objective: Identify the socio demographicprofile of adolescents abusing cannabis. Methods: Data were collected from 100 patients from two deaddiction centres using a survey questionnaire after getting consent. Results: The demographic findingsrevealed that the majority 63% belonged to the age group of 15-20 years and the highest 64% of the sampleswere hailing from the urban area. Significantly, the prevalence of substance use is high among children froma nuclear family. Majority (42%) were belonging to high income family group (>30,000/month). Analysisof the family status revealed that among 100 samples, fathers of 62 patients were working abroad. In 92%of the cases there was family history of substance abuse. All these findings suggest that an in-depth study isneeded to identify the role of demographic factors in cannabis abuse.