3% and 34.1% respectively). Primary cannabis users are also younger than all other treatment seekers. They have a mean age of 23.6 years and 81.3% is younger than 30 years old. Only the primary amphetamine sellekchem users are also generally under the age of 30. All other groups have a mean age of 30 years or older. Further, only 8.6% of the primary cannabis users were not born in Belgium. This is considerably lower than the cocaine (18.6%) and opiate (35.9%) subgroups. When the clients’ living, working and judicial conditions are considered, we observe that primary cannabis users are more often still students (in 41.2% of the cases) compared with all other groups, even the amphetamine users (18.8%) who have a similar mean age as the cannabis users.

The same conclusion can be drawn regarding their living conditions: primary cannabis users more often live with their parents (52.4%) compared to other treatment seekers. The results also show that both primary cannabis and amphetamine users have in almost half of the cases current problems with police or justice. However, different types of legal problems can be observed: almost half of the cannabis users having legal problems are involved in the ‘therapeutic advice’ procedure, while more than a third of the amphetamine users are on probation after detention. Therapeutic advice is a measure through which youngsters who come into contact with the law because of drug-related offences (possession or use of illicit drugs, predominantly cannabis) are referred to substance abuse treatment agencies in order to assess whether their use is problematic and whether treatment is indicated.

This measure also has the objective for youngsters to become familiar with the treatment system. Table 1 Comparison of primary cannabis users with primary alcohol, opiate, amphetamine or cocaine users (n = 1347) Substance use patterns of treatment seeking primary cannabis users Primary cannabis users – in comparison with primary alcohol users – have higher prevalence figures regarding the regular use of amphetamines, hallucinogens, cocaine and ecstasy, but lower prevalence figures on the regular use of sedatives. Compared with the other illicit drug users, we can observe that they are less likely to regularly use cocaine, opiates and sedatives.

For the other substances, a more differentiated picture needs to be drawn: regular amphetamine use is lower in primary cannabis users than in primary cocaine users, but not different from primary opiate users; regular ecstasy use is lower in primary cannabis users than in primary amphetamine users but not significantly different Batimastat from primary cocaine and opiate users. Overall, 43.6% of primary cannabis users only uses cannabis regularly and can be considered single-substance users, while in nearly all other groups – except for primary alcohol users (68.1%) – this figure is remarkably lower: be-tween 17.7% (opiates) and 22.0% (cocaine).