Survey data on various risks attributed to drug use are analyzed through two-way comparisons of non-users and regular users of marijuana and alcohol. For both drugs, non-users perceive considerably greater risk in use than do regular users. For most kinds of drug-related risks, alcohol use is perceived as involving the same or greater degrees of risk than is marijuana use. The findings suggest that young people will not attach a great deal of credibility to propaganda emphasizing the risks of marijuana use.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
LoisB. DeFleurGeraldR. Garrett, “Dimensions of Marijuana Usage in a Land-Grant University,”Journal of Counseling Psychology17 (September, 1970), 468–76;
2.
KeithE. Davis, “Drug Effects and Drug Use,” in LawrenceS. Wrightsman, Social Psychology in the Seventies, Monterey, Ca.: Brooks-Cole, 1972, Pp. 517–46;
3.
RichardJessorShirleyL. JessorJohnFinney, “A Social Psychology of Marijuana Use: Longitudinal Studies of High School and College Youth,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology26 (April, 1973), 1–15.
4.
Compared with undergraduate enrollment parameters for the Spring Quarter of 1972, the sample tends to under-represent females, students in the College of Liberal Arts, and freshmen and seniors. However, the extent of marijuana and alcohol use characterizing students in our sample compares quite favorably with the findings of an earlier survey of nonmedical drug use among undergraduates at the University of Minnesota by DvorakE. J.RupprechtP., “Nonmedical Drug Use Among University Students: 1967–1970,”University of Minnesota Health Service, Minneapolis, 1971.
5.
See JohnKaplan, Marijuana: The New Prohibition, New York: World Publishing, 1970, for an extensive discussion of risks attributed to marijuana and alcohol. Our risk items were worded as follows on the questionnaires:. (1) What would you estimate to be the risk to the average marijuana smoker (alcohol drinker) of using it to escape reality when faced with problems or difficulties?. (2) What would you estimate to be the risk to the average person of mental difficulties from using marijuana (alcohol)?. (3) What would you estimate to be your personal risk of rejection by your parents if they knew you were using marijuana (alcohol)?. (4) What would you estimate to be the risk to the average person on becoming psychologically dependent upon marijuana (alcohol)?. (5) What would you estimate to be the risk to the average person of arrest by legal authorities from using marijuana (alcohol)?. (6) What would you estimate to be your personal risk of losing your self-control if you were to use marijuana (alcohol)?. (7) What would you estimate to be your personal risk of rejection by your close friends if they knew you were using marijuana (alcohol)?. (8) What would you estimate to be the risk to the average person of physical harm from using marijuana (alcohol)?. (9) What would you estimate to be the risk to the average person of becoming aggressive or violent after using marijuana (alcohol)?.
6.
Although many respondents fell into categories between the “non-users” and the “regular users,” their ratings of risks were in virtually all instances intermediate to the two extreme sub-groups. To simplify the presentation of our data, we focus only on the two extremes.
7.
HaroldA. MulfordDonaldE. Miller, “Preoccupation with Alcohol and Definitions of Alcohol,”Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol24 (December, 1963), 682–96;
8.
“Drinking in Iowa: III. A Scale of Definitions of Alcohol Related to Drinking Behavior,”Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol21 (June, 1960), 267–78;
9.
DonCahalanIraH. CisinHelenM. Crossley, American Drinking Practices, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Center of Alcoholic Studies, 1969.
