title: What Are Youth Asking About Drugs? A Report of NIDA Drug Facts Chat Day.
abstract: The current study analyzes a sample of questions about drugs asked online by youth who participated in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) "Drug Facts Chat Day." The types of drugs youth asked about were coded into 17 substance categories, and the topics they raised were coded into seven thematic categories. The top five queried drugs were marijuana (16.4%), alcohol (8.5%), tobacco (6%), cocaine (5.7), and pharmaceutical drugs (4.5%). The effects of drug use, experience of being high, the addictiveness of drugs, pharmacology, and drug sales were among the more common types of questions to emerge but varied depending on the substance. These findings show the types of information young people are seeking about drugs and have clear implications to inform youth drug education programs.
authors: Department of Social Work, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA cory.morton@unh.edu.
authors: Cory M
authors: CM
authors: Morton
authors: School of Liberal Arts, Berkeley College, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Heidi
authors: H
authors: Hoefinger
authors: The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Rebecca
authors: R
authors: Linn-Walton
authors: Higher Education Division, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors: Ross
authors: R
authors: Aikins
authors: Public Health Solutions, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Gregory P
authors: GP
authors: Falkin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D008297:Male; D054577:National Institute on Drug Abuse (U.S.); D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: adolescent attitudes; drug abuse; information dissemination