The results of research on the prevalence of social deviations and social determination of risks connected with the use of psychoactive substances in conditions of preservation of social security in the Altai Territory and Altai Republic is presented in the article. We suggest studying the prevalence of drug abuse at three hierarchical levels: societal (presented by general characteristics of threats and dangers for society; evaluation of influence of the given risk for common level of social security), social-group and regional (presented by reflections of the situation with drug abuse; specifics of prevalence, motivation and determination of drug use among different groups of population) and individual levels (presented by individual varieties on behavior strategies, connected with life experience and perception of risk).

Key words: social illnesses, use of psychoactive substances, social security, social risks.