Percepción y consumo de mariguana: efectos del proceso de legalización en estudiantes universitarios.

Objective: Understand the way in which the legalization process of marihuana has affected university students in relation to its medical and recreational use. Method: Cross-sectional and correlational study of 17,986 participating students which have not consumed marihuana in the last year. The questionnaire The Consumption of Drugs in University Students (CODEU-2) was utilized. Study variables: sex, intention of consumption, perception of the consumption of third parties, public politics for the regulation and opinion regarding incremental consumption in case of legalization. The bivariate analysis utilized the Chi- Square (p <,05) and multinomial logistic method to estimate variations for the intention to consume under the assumption of itslegalization. Results: Faced with the possible legalization in Mexico, the participants demonstrated: low intention of consumption, more in men than women; larger approval for medical than recreational use; the majority preferred the State´s control; and a larger perception of the increase in consumption, in women than in men. Conclusions: Even though the participants did not consume marihuana, the results demonstrate it would be important to rely on institutional politics and preventative programs to prevent the acceptance of the offer of such products in young people, while health systems should be prepared to provide care to the derived problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]