ABSTRACT
Adolescence is a critical period in a person’s lifetime in relation to the initiation and regular practice of risk behaviours. This chapter deals with drug consumption during this stage of life. It examines the factors that account for the use of drugs during adolescence within different interrelated contexts. The importance of the risk behaviour involves considerable effort on the part of researchers and scholars to explain the mechanisms underlying drug consumption. Most European countries have made significant efforts in the past few years to determine the current trends in licit and illicit drug consumption among teenagers. Tobacco is highly addictive, which explains the dependence and maintenance of its use after adolescence. Different research lines suggest that the pattern of illicit drug consumption is different from that of legal drugs. Adolescents susceptible to high risk behaviours show problems in multiple areas and tend to belong to social networks that foster the development of the risk behaviours and reinforce their continued performance.
