OBJECTIVES: The academic area of the Tertiary Education constitutes an important field  of adjustment and transaction of the young in the post adolescence age with particular tensions, pressures and  stress. The objectives of this study are to focus on the extent of drug use in this student community and the investigation of the relationship between socioeconomic factors, toxic habits and drug use. METHODS: The sampling was selected out of a population of 27,930 students according to stratified sampling weighed by gender, department and semester. The sample size was 829 students, that is   sufficient   for the estimation of the proportion of users with a significance level of 0.05. The questionnaire comprised 83 items concerning   sociodemographic and economic characteristics, adjustment to the academic environment and use of substances. RESULTS: A total of 161 persons, (19.4%)  have used drugs at least once.  There are significant differences (p<0.01) between users and non users concerning : gender, relations between parents , satisfaction on study , alcohol use , smoking, number of cigarettes/day, friends that are drug users, age of smoke beginners, spending the night. Discriminant analysis has indicated that the discriminant factors between  dependents/on a crucial phase, before dependence and  non users are :  friends that are drug users (0.707),  alcohol use (0.627), age of smoke beginners (0.608), relationship between parents (0.392). CONCLUSIONS: .  It is evident   the resulting relationship between  illegal  and legal psychotropic  substances.  Consequently, prevention policy should not ignore tobacco and alcohol use. Additionally it is evident the predominant role of the social environment   in the use of substances.