[Female drug abuse in a university setting]

Morocco is a country with Muslim-Arab tradition. In this sociocultural context, drug abuse in women is very taboo. We tried to approach the subject of drug use in women in a cross-sectional study of a sample of 1208 students [744 women and 464 men] who completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. We found 6.59% of women and 36.2% of men used drugs. Using DSM IV criteria, drug dependence was found in 2% of the subsample of female drug users and drug abuse in 1.5%. Place of residence and level of income were statistically significant risk factors for drug use