Tendency to Narcotics among People Over Ten Years of Age in Ardabil Province, 2002

Narcotic abuse is one of the main problems in the world today, and individuals ’ view towards it is important for managers and social problem analysts.Regarding the threats and harms of the prevalence of narcotics in society, this research was done to determine the rate of tendency to narcotics among people over ten years old in Ardabil province. This was a descriptive cross-sectional research. A two-section questionnaire was used to collect the data. 600 men and women over ten years of age were chosen through systematic cluster sampling and the required information was gathered by referring to their houses and interviewing them. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive and analytical statistics. 3.5% of the samples had positive family history of using narcotics. 18% were smokers. 84.7% believed that one can use narcotics everywhere. 30% claimed that using narcotics reduces one ’ s physical discomfort, and 30.2% expressed that one can give up the narcotics whenever necessary. On the whole the tendency towards addiction among the subjects was 53.57%. This tendency was higher in rural areas compared to the cities (56.72% versus 49.81%). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Illiterate people had the most tendency rate towards addiction (55.61%). There was a statistically significant relationship between tendency towards addiction and positive family history (p< 0.05). The highest tendency rate (54.33%) was seen in 11- 20 age group. the results showed that the consequent dangers of addiction are not known for people and that the great tendency for narcotics shows the need to inform the society in order to prevent the addiction.