Three-Year Results of Prevention Programs on Marijuana Use: The New Hampshire Study

Abstract

The effects on marijuana use of 1) a drug prevention curriculum, or 2) this curriculum with added parent and other adult community activities in comparison with 3) a control community were investigated. Baseline information on drug-related behaviors from a sample of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders aged nine to fourteen years in rural New Hampshire (N = 1200) were obtained. The children completed these initial questionnaires in classrooms in 1987. In the comprehensive community intervention regular marijuana use was reduced by over 50 percent. No program had a significant effect on the initiation of marijuana use. The predictors of initiation were being in a higher grade, low school satisfaction, poor academic achievement, feeling unloved by one's family, feeling unpopular, and being part of a drug-using peer group. The baseline predictors of subsequent regular marijuana use were poor academic achievement, feeling unpopular, and being part of a drug-using peer group. In interviews the cultural and social contexts of marijuana use were explored. Strategies to prevent marijuana use need to take into account the profile of the marijuana-using child, the adult community's attitudes and beliefs about drugs, and the access of drug sellers and users to children.