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Received Aug 18, 2017; Accepted Jan 2, 2018
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1. Introduction
Production, trade, and consumption of illegal substances and related problems increase daily throughout the world; and the average age of users has decreased. Substance use and addiction are an important public health problem rapidly spreading around the world that threatens the users, their families, environments, and the society as a whole, causing health problems and devastating societies in psychological and economical terms with an ever more decrease in the age of users. In this context, substance use and addiction as an overall worldwide issue have become an important problem for our country as well [1, 2]. There are two crucial findings concerning the studies on substance use: there has been a rapid increase in in USA and in our rates of substance use among the adolescents (high school students) country in recent years; and there has been a decrease in tobacco and alcohol use, while the age of first substance use has become younger [3, 4].
According to a report published by UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), age of first volatile substance use is approximately 11, whereas average age of first cannabis use is 16, and average age of first ecstasy use is 17 years worldwide [5]. It has been found that the age of first substance use in Turkey is 14 [6]. Adolescents constitute the most important risk group in substance use. The most frequent substance use disorders among adolescents are harmful use and abuse. Addiction is rarely seen until late adolescence [7]. The programs which may assist in the problem of substance use are prevention and early intervention programs. There are two important reasons with regard to these programs: labor spent and cost of substance use prevention programs are less than the labor and cost spent for treatment and reintegration of substance addicts. Prevention of use in early stages provides for the reduction in substance addiction and increase in lifetime [8].
In order for the substance use prevention programs to be successful in adolescence, it is necessary to determine the...