This article analyzes 33 risk indicators about problematic drugs use, based in epidemiological studies in representative student samples, carried out in Mexico since 1975. The indicators are distributed among the variation sources proposed by the classic epidemiological model (environment-agent-host), and are aimed to understand the phenomenon within a systemic paradigm where the multivaried nature of the phenomenon allows to establish functional relations among drug use, user characteristics and the social and family environment. The hypothetical construction sustained in this paper is: "the magnitude of the risk to fall in a problematical drug use, if someone belongs to the high school population in our country, depends on risk indicators coming from three sources: a facilitating environment, the drug use characteristics (use pattern and drug type) and the student characteristics (demographic, social and psychological)". This article describes the indicators (11 related to the facilitating environment, 8 to the drug use characteristics and 14 to the student), as well as the way to grade them, and the definition of a graphic profile that contemplates four areas. Also, the possible applications in field research and primary care are discussed. We conclude that it is important to have local preventive policies in schools.