According to the age of first illicit drug use, in our study, 7.5% of participants had consumed illicit drugs at 14–15 years old, 17.5% at 16–17 years old, and 9.7% at 18 years old or older, being in line with previous study in which the age of first illicit drug use were around 15 years old . In addition, we explored the difficulty of obtaining different illicit drugs. More than half of the students claimed that obtaining cannabis was easy or very easy. Instead, only around 30% of students claimed that obtaining cocaine, ecstasy, and amphetamines was easy or very easy. Our data on student perceived availability showed higher percentages than previous studies in Europe, where cannabis was also the most widely available drug , followed by ecstasy , cocaine , amphetamine , and methamphetamine . In addition, we did not find any different by gender; instead, according to a ESPAD study, boys were more likely to consider cannabis to be easily available than girls .
Most of the students were single, which is very common for those living at home with their parents at this age. Some studies showed that living with the family is a protective factor and working during university studies is detrimental to risky consumption compared to living with roommates or alone, which supports previous studies carried out with students . Interventions to counteract these risk behaviors should also include strengthening prosocial participation and parental control. Likewise, we consider it important in future studies to take into account other variables not considered in our analyses such as place of residence , family composition, family consumption, self-perception of family functional status,family support, and social class, among others. These variables could be related to drug use in the univer-sity student population since various studies highlight the family as a factor to take into account in the use of adolescents and young people . On the other hand, the illicit drug consumption between different nationalities were also explored; we found that France and Belgium reported high consumption regarding to the illicit drug ever in life, as well as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, and amphetamines consumption ever in life.
Besides, the consumption of cannabis in the last 30 days was also statically significant, with France and Belgium being the ones with the highest consumption. This was in line with the bivariate analysis, in which nationality were significantly associated with the consumption of illicit drugs, cannabis, and ecstasy ever in life. According to the ESPAD study , France had more consumption in any drug , following by Spain and Belgium . Cannabis use was the same in Spain and France , being lower in Belgium . Despite this, Belgium presented higher consumption of ecstasy and amphetamines than Spain and France . Due to the differences previously found between countries, this could allow a broader vision to develop more specific drug use prevention programs . Finally, only 58% of nursing students claimed to have received knowledge of the problem of illicit drug use at university; this may be explained by the fact that there are a greater number of first-year students, and they have not yet acquired the knowledge.
Despite this, previous studies showed that nursing students have little knowledge of different drugs, as well as the potential uses of medical marijuana, and the risks associated with it . In this line, some authors claimed specific risk factors for drug use in nursing students, increased stress, and anxiety in the context of academic workload and lack of education on addiction or alcohol within schools of nursing curricula . Furthermore, a study by Strobbe et al. included risk factors for the use of illicit drugs in nursing students, the lack of education about the use of substances, inconsistent policies and procedures, and insufficient available interventions. This appears contrary to what is expected of these health professionals, since those who study health sciences should be the best candidates to acquire self-care skills and behave in a way that limits the adverse consequences for the health of inappropriate lifestyles . Substance misuse in nursing students may have more widespread negative sequelae, when compared to other students, since the impacts of substance misuse in nurses and nursing students have the potential to not only affect the individual but also the patients that they may care for . Despite this, the risk factors studied are not specific to nursing students. There is a profound paucity in the literature regarding to the prevalence of substance use among nursing students, as well as its risk factors . Therefore, to reduce the risk of nursing students and later newly graduated nurses in the use of drugs, larger and long-term studies should be carried out to understand the factors that influence the use of illicit drugs in nursing students, including the previously mentioned variables, so as to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based interventions within nursing schools .