[Smoking of crushed tobacco tablets. An epidemic among young people in a distant municipality in Nordland].

Smoking of crushed pills mixed with tobacco, a form of drug abuse not previously reported in Norway, occurred during the winter of 1988/89 in a rural coastal municipality in northern Norway. All pupils aged 12 to 17 years (N = 356) were included in a study use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. The overall response rate was 94%. The number who had smoked pills at least once was 16 (eight of each sex). Use of all three substances was significantly higher among pill smokers than among the rest of the sample. Use of illegal drugs was practically non-existent. Only two subjects had tried smoking cannabis. Pill smokers had less contact with parents and other adults, but reported close relationships with peers. The attitudes of parents towards alcohol and smoking, as perceived by the adolescents themselves, were more permissive among pill smokers (31% believed that their parents accepted occasional drunkenness, 69% believed that they accepted smoking) than among the rest of the sample (9% as regards drunkenness and 16% as regards smoking). Interviews with two pill smokers revealed that the phenomenon of combining crushed pills with tobacco was of local origin.