Abstract The Purpose of this study was to describe social representations of risk and protective factors of psychoactive substances, in order to understand the precautions taken by parents in Bogota, Colombia. Were included 40 parents, 29 women, 11 men, from four educational, socio-economic strata 1 to 5 in Bogota. The following instruments were used: narrative interview, focus group, and field diary. It was noted that Social Representations (SR) versus risk factors (RF) and protection factors (PF), are mediated primarily by the Social Representations (SR) of drugs such as: drug – disease, drug - autonomous entity and marginalization; from these, it was observed that the level of risk or protection was modulated by perceived exposure, which is understood as high or no exposure, which determined the types of RF, PF and Precautions Taken to prevent use of drugs.