Background: The Drugs Advice Service (SOD in its Catalan acronym) in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) provides an Information and Guidance Program (IGP) for teenagers, and an Alternative Measures Program (AMP) targeting minors fined for consumption / possession of illegal drugs in public spaces. This study describes these programs and compares the profiles of their users.
Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study of 1,010 people discharged from the two SOD programs in 2008-10 after screening for psychiatric disorders and addiction and an extended brief intervention for subjects without pathology. The profiles of the users were compared, and age-specific rates of AMP use were calculated.
Results: Cannabis causes 89.9% of entries in the SOD. The proportion of IGP users with high risk criteria for cannabis is 13.3% and with risk for alcohol 11.3%, while in AMP it is 8.9%, and 4%. Criteria for substance dependence or abuse or another psychiatric disorder caused referral of 6% of AMP users and 38% of IGP users.
Conclusions: Adolescents in the AMP had a pattern of cannabis use (and often of alcohol) of low or moderate risk, compared to IGP. Beyond the value of the indicated prevention intervention, the programmes facilitate the early detection and referral of problematic substance use and mental disorders in early stages.