SUMMARY

Adolescence is a stage that begins early and is gradually becoming more and more prolonged in welfare societies. For health authorities themselves (WHO), concepts of adolescence and youth overlap, at least for the 15-19 year age groups. On the other hand, in areas in the so-called Third World, puberty and adolescence are practically non-existent stages at which children are prematurely considered as adults.

Yet complementarily to their geographic origin, adolescents undergo intense psychobiological changes that transform their body and mind and, therefore, their identity. The adolescent’s brain undergoes a second developmental wave, which is both a cause and a consequence of powerful hormonal changes, among other things. Recent studies show that the frontal cortex is the last region to develop within the human brain. That is to say that at the very least, the part of the brain that enables us to assess situations, take decisions and control our desires and emotions, amongst other things, continues to “mature” during adolescence. Adolescents therefore become intrinsically and particularly vulnerable with regard to taking decisions, and the use/abuse of drugs is among the variables that may notably contribute to increasing dysfunctions and risks of a biopsychosocial, educational and legal nature.

Taking the phenomenon of the transculturation of drugs in the same sociocultural environment as its starting point, this article provides figures and reflections on the new drugs and new forms of consumption that are spreading in this globalised world, leading adolescents, generally speaking, to consider drugs as just one more consumer commodity in the so-called culture of leisure. By analysing aspects of use/abuse among adolescents with regard of tobacco, alcohol and synthetic drugs, as well as those produced from cannabis and cocaine, the article suggests certain diagnostic criteria from the viewpoint of care clinics and therapeutic intervention based on damage reduction and risk reduction programmes.