Early sexual experience and later onset of illegal drug use among African American students on HBCU campuses.

Few studies examine whether early sexual experience is associated with subsequent illegal drug use among adolescents. A sample of 7,372 African American students who had not used illegal drugs before the age of 14 were identified in the dataset of the 2001 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Substance Use Survey. Using self-reported ages of onset, discrete-time survival models estimated the hazard of illegal drug use onset after age 13 subsequent to first sexual intercourse. Early sex was modestly associated with subsequent illegal drug initiation, particularly among females. Drug use prevention services should be provided to youth engaged in early sexual activity.