Abstract
Introduction: This study was conducted to examine the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of nursing students related to drug abuse.
Method: The sample of this study that is descriptive in nature formed by 238 students studying in the first class of Adnan Menderes University Health College Nursing Department. A questionnaire that questions the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors about drug abuse and that consists of a total of 42 questions was used.
Results: In the study, 41,6% of the students were aware of the effects of drugs and 78.6% of them thought that drug abuse could be controlled if desired. According to 42% of the students, drug abuse by the young resulted from bad communication between parents and children. It was detected that 16.4% of the students currently smoked, 11.3% of them currently used alcohol, 2.5% of them had tried drug before. In the study, a statistically significant difference was found between the prevalence of smoking and drinking alcohol according to genders, smoking initiation age, family type and drug trial behaviors (p<0.05).
Conclusion: It is understood that although the students have positive attitudes about drug abuse, they do not have enough information and gender affects the use of addictive substances.

Key words: Drug abuse, knowledge, attitude, behavior, adolescent