Substance use among high school students in Greece: outburst of illicit drug use in a society under change.

Trends in self-reported substance use in surveys of Greek adolescent students show that regular tobacco smoking increased in 1998 (20.8%) after having fallen between 1984 (22%) and 1993 (14.6%). Frequent alcohol consumption decreased in 1998 to 12.1%, from around 15% in both previous surveys. A sharp increase was observed in illicit drug use from 6% in 1993 to 13.7% in 1998. Unprescribed use of psychoactive medicines continued to decrease steadily from 53.8% in 1984 to 31.8% in 1998. Perceived availability and risks of cannabis parallel trends in use. Policy measures and recent sociocultural changes seem to influence illicit use.