Aim: Likewise in most developed countries use of psychoactive substances and dependence to these substances has became an important problem in our country. Ease of obtaining these substances, inefficiency of legal regulations, lack of education, and problems of adolescence period has important roles in gradual incline of this problem.

Material and method: High school students attending to the schools in Elazig city center in 2000-2001 educational calendar were involved in this study to determine the rate of psychoactive substances in youngsters. Schools which presenting best example of the total number of students in city were selected by considering socio-culturel and economical aspects and the questionnaire was performed on a total of 1100 cases.

Results: Among the most commonly used psychoactive substances thinner-baly (26.7%) and marihuanna (24.0%) while 6.8% of the participants (n=75) reported trial of psychoactive substances other than alcohol at least once in life period. It was determined that the 50.7% of the students were obtained these substance from school or street friends, and the rate of psychoactive agent use were higher in students from splittied families, families with partner problems and those with poor school performances.

Conclusion: Epidemiological studies are very important for establishment of epidemiological data among substance abusers of our country. Data from the performed epidemiological studies would provide clue for establishing reason-result correlation, and provide guidance for implementations of cautions and legal regulation as well as educational programmes.