The study used a sample of Mexican-American and non-Hispanic White adolescents and addressed: (1) whether sexual victimization, physical abuse and the co-occurrence of both types of abuse were related to self-reported measures of illicit drug use; (2) the relative effects of the three measures of abuse on illicit drug use; and (3) whether the three measures of abuse were related to self-reported age of onset of illicit drug use. Physical abuse and sexual victimization, as well as the co-occurrence of both, were significantly associated with frequency of various types of illicit drug use, but no measure was a particularly robust predictor of mean age of onset of drug use. Physical abuse was generally more strongly related to illicit drug use than sexual victimization or the co-occurrence of both. Any treatment and/or counseling strategies targeted at abused adolescents should include a component on preventing drug use or halting the escalation of use. Interventions designed to strengthen factors known empirically to insulate children from the long-term effects of abuse will be the most successful. Tables, references