Factors in the Transition from Legal to Illicit Drug Use in Young Adults from Northern Mexico.

Objectives: This research sought to analyze the predictive effect of personal (personality traits), social (social support and social stigma) and community factors (characteristic of the neighborhood and exposure to consumption) on the transition of drug use in young adults.

Methods: Case and control study. The cases were 70 individuals from 18 to 34 years of age who had already transitioned into illicit drug use and the controls were 210 legal drug usuers (tobacco or alcohol) in the same age range who had not had the transition.

[Drugs use as a cultural practice within gangs].

Today, the social phenomenon of drugs trafficking and violence related to drugs has tended to minimize the implications of drugs consumption in gangs. This article is based on in-depth interviews in young gangs in the metropolitan area of Nuevo León, Mexico, with a view to reflecting on and analyzing the drug as a cultural practice within gangs. In the search for meaning, the first thing that is shown is the beginning of gang members in drugs consumption, and the form how drugs are presented by family members and friends of the gang is described.

[Accidents and injuries due to consumption of alcohol or drugs in patients treated at an emergency room].

The aims of the study were to describe the differences in alcohol consumption by sex, education and occupation and to understand the effects of the socio-demographic characteristics on alcohol consumption, in 120 emergency room patients. The results showed significant differences for sex (t=-3.570, p <.

Self-esteem, perceived self-efficacy, consumption of tobacco and alcohol in secondary students from urban and rural areas of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.

This study aimed to know the differences, if any, in the consumption of tobacco and alcohol among adolescents from urban and rural areas, and if self-esteem and self-efficacy are related to the consumption in these two groups of adolescents from secondary schools in urban and rural areas of Nuevo León México, from January to June in 2006. The study was based on the theoretical concepts of self-esteem, perceived self-efficacy and consumption of alcohol and tobacco. The design was descriptive and correlational with a sample of 359 students.

Antisocial behavior and alcohol consumption by school adolescents.

Adolescence is a vulnerable period and facilitates the start of risk behaviors, for instance the use of drugs. This study aims to describe the differences between antisocial behavior and alcohol consumption according to gender, age and education; as well as to discover the relation between antisocial behavior and alcohol consumption in 1,221 school adolescents from Monterrey - Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The findings reveal differences in antisocial behavior according to gender.