Evaluation of the awareness and perception of professional students in medicine, business and law schools of Karachi, regarding the use of (recreational) cannabis

Objective: To assess the awareness and perception of students attending professional medicine, law and business schools regarding recreational use of cannabis. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2010 and November 2010. Using convenience sampling, 150 students from medical, business and law schools from both private and public sectors were enrolled. Government institutions included, Sindh Medical College, Institute of Business Administration and S.M. Law College, private schools were Ziauddin Medical College, SZABIST and Lecole for advanced studies. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire. SPSS 17 was used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 250 students were approached out of which 150(60%) filled the questionnaire. Of them 91(60.7%) were males and the overall mean age of the respondents was 22±2 years. A total of 68 (45.3%) students were from the medical field, 53 (35.3%) from business and 29 (19.3%) from law. The private and public sectors were equally represented at 75 (50%) each. Overall, 93(62%) agreed that hashish is a serious problem concerning student population. When asked to identify factors encouraging abstinence, 67(44.7%) respondents each cited religion and health risks. Conclusion: Our youth is not only concerned about the menace of hashish and but want proper awareness to be provided.