Background and Objective: Substance abuse is a worldwide problem and converted to a big challenge for human society. The trend of this phenomenon is rapidly increasing in the world and our country . Because of quick change of substance abuse profile, a comprehensive assessment for exact identification of this phenomenon is needed. The present study was designed to evaluate the association between substance abuse route and age related factors in substance abuser.

 Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study (2008), 120 subjects referred to the addiction clinic of Panje-Azar Hospital in Gorgan, Golestan University and medical sciences were selected via systemic random sampling. The data was gathered by a questionnaire and interview and analyzed by, using SPSS software, ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test (P<0.05).

 Results: The mean age of the subjects is 34.2±10.96, with the range of 16-66 years. The subjects are males (107 89.2%) and married (78 65%). The first Substance abuse of 87 (72.5%) is opium, which is the most commonly abused substance before withdrawal for 64.2% of the subjects. The main causes of the first use are having pleasure (38.8%), getting rid of psychological problem (23.3%) and being curios (23.3%). Sixty (50%) of them report that they first experienced it at home. The relation between age and route of substance abuse is statistically significant (P=0.025).

 Conclusion: According to rapid change in substance abuse profile and the characteristics of addicted people, periodically assessments are necessary for identifying this phenomenon and planning evidence based preventive plans.