Awareness towards Drug Abuse and its Associated Factors in Young Adults of Kashmir, North India: A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Drug abuse has been defined as an extreme desire to obtain and use increasing amounts of one or more substances. The risk factors for developing drug abuse problems include peer pressure, curiosity, and conflict in personal relations. Objective: 1. To assess awareness of young adults of Kashmir towards drug abuse. 2. To assess the perspectives of the participants regarding factors responsible for drug abuse. Method: An online cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 young adults of Kashmir, North India in month of September 2022.Details regarding the socio-demographic characteristics and awareness about the drug abuse were collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Almost all of the participants (96.6%) had heard about drug abuse and about (63.3%) reported mass media as the main source of information. Half of participants knew that sedatives, painkillers, opiod derivates (like charas, heroine and cocaine) cause addiction. Conclusion: The present study showed that young adults of Kashmir had good level awareness regarding substance abuse, which helped in analyzing youth awareness of substance abuse and associated harm from their use.