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The representative descriptive study provides information about the 1997-1999 research performed in 19 secondary technical and vocational schools (agricultural, forestry, veterinary schools) in the Moravian region. More than 2.200 students and more than 200 teachers and school managers have responded in the carried out survey. In the research, the following issues have examined: abuse of illicit substances, gambling, use of alcohol and tobacco, degree of accessibility, student's attitude to the drugs, spare time activities, socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. The teachers were surveyed about their criteria about prevention programmes, evaluation of effectiveness, co-operation and implementation of basic prevention programmes in schools and boarding schools.It turned out that alcohol, tobacco, analgesics medications, cannabis derivatives, hallucinogens, discotheque drugs, volatile substances, and pervitin are easily accessible especially for solvent respondents. However, this fact does not have to correlate with a mass abuse of these substances. Approximately 80% of respondents occasioally drink alcoholic having had their first experience at the age of 10-14; however two in ten respondents admitted their first experience with alcohol before the age 10. Regular drinking was admitted by 8% of all respondents. Approximately 20% of respondents occasionally smoke tobacco, mostly cigarettes, and the same percentage of them smoke on a daily basis. In most cases the first experimenting with smoking started at the age 10-14, about 15% of respondents had tried smoking before they were 10 years old or younger.The risks of excessive/early smoking and drinking have been widely played down both by the society and individuals. On quarter of all respondents gambled when they were 18 years old or youngers, more than 10% of them admitted gambling for more than 10 times in all.On third of respondents have experimented with cannabis derivatives (marijuana, hashish) out of whom about 7% more than 10 times. 6% of respondents have encountered hallucinogens, out of whom about 1% respondents more than 10 times in a lifetime. 4.5 % respondents have experimented with volatizing substances, out of whom about 0.6% more than 10 times in their lifes.The abovementioned three groups of illicit substances alongside alcohol and tobacco belong to the "most favourite ones". The other drugs (pervitin, heroin, cocaine), have been experimented with in less than 0.5% of cases. All schools have elaborated basic anti-drug prevention programmes mostly involving actions aimed at increasing the student's knowledge of dependence substances, and only rarely focused on positive approaches, active methods of declining offered drugs, value-oriented development, and peer programmes. Preventive actions in schools have suffered from a lack of communication between teaching staff, and between the school and local autorities, and antidrug co-ordinators. From this comes a challenge for future efforts-to implement primary anti-drug prevention into school subjects and school life.
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