Marijuana and Health (1982) / Chapter Skim
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USE OF MARIJUANA IN THE UNITED STATES
USE OF MARIJUANA IN THE UNITED STATES
Pages 34-56
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From page 34... ...
The epidemiologic and survey literature have been extensively reviewed and the major longitudinal studies are summarized in a table in Appendix C Much of our recent knowledge derives from two well-designed major, continuing nationwide monitoring efforts *
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From page 35... ...
PATTERNS AND TRENDS OF USE OF MARIJUANA General Population The National Household Surveys found that marijuana was the most commonly used of all the nonlegal psychoactive drugs investigated, including inhalants, hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, stimulants, sedatives, tranquilizers, and analgesics (Fishburne et al., l980)
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From page 36... ...
Other major survey studies have confirmed the findings of the National Household Survey for comparable cohort populations (Gallup Opinion Index, l976; O'Donnell et al., l976)
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From page 37... ...
Cisin. Highlights from the National Survey on Drug Abuse: l979.
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From page 38... ...
Figure 2 shows the trends for use of marijuana from l960 through l979, revealing the sharp upward climb of use of marijuana starting in l967. The dramatic rise in use of marijuana by adolescents has recently slowed, and the lifetime prevalence rates (ever use)
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From page 39... ...
O'Malley, Highlights from Student Drug Use in America, l975-l980. DHHS Publication No.
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From page 40... ...
In l980, for the first time since l975, when the Monitoring the Future data collection began among high school seniors, the percentage of "daily" users of marijuana among seniors in high school declined significantly from l0.3 percent in l979 to 9.l percent in l980 (Figure 3) , and there was a leveling of lifetime prevalence at approximately 60 percent.
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From page 41... ...
As successive cohorts of high school seniors have shown increasingly higher levels of experience with marijuana from l975 through 1980, these cohorts also report increasingly earlier ages at first use of marijuana. For example, in the senior class of l980, which had a lifetime prevalence of 60 percent by senior year, 25 percent of those using marijuana had begun in the eighth grade (average age l4)
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From page 42... ...
Results from the National Household Surveys and from samples of high school seniors had indicated that the ratio of rates of use of illicit drugs other than marijuana to use of marijuana declined through l979 (Kandel, l980; Miller and Cisin, l980)
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From page 43... ...
Much of "daily" use takes place within the school setting. A statewide study of seventh through twelfth grade pupils in New York, conducted in l978 by the New York State Drug Abuse Commission, found that 50 percent of those using marijuana within the last 6 months had been intoxicated one or more times while in class (Johnson and Uppal, l980)
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From page 44... ...
are current users of hashish, they have substantial exposure to a high-potency form of marijuana. We also know from data on age at first use that many of these "daily" marijuana users began their use of cigarettes, alcohol, and various other illicit drugs at quite an early age.
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From page 45... ...
, and those without children are somewhat more likely to use marijuana than those with children (ll percent versus 8 percent)
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From page 46... ...
that more than a few of their friends smoke cigarettes, and (5) that at least a few of their friends use a number of other illicit drugs.
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From page 47... ...
Their use precedes the use of all illicit drugs. At least four distinct successive stages of adolescent involvement with drugs can be identified: (l)
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From page 48... ...
Existing research gives us some clues that users of illicit drugs possess some distinguishing features. There are four clusters of variables -- parental influences, peer influences, adolescent involvement in deviant behaviors, and adolescent beliefs and values -- that assume differential importance for predicting involvement at each stage of drug behavior (Kandel et al., l978a,b)
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From page 49... ...
. Other longitudinal studies also document that many of the factors found to be associated with use of drugs at one point in time, such as low academic performance, delinquency, low self-esteem, and depressive mood actually precede the use of drugs (O'Malley, l975; Mellinger et al., l976; Jessor and Jessor, l977; Johnston et al., l978; Kandel et al., l978a; Kaplan and Pokorny, l978; Wingard et al., l979; Kaplan, l980)
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From page 50... ...
SUMMARY There has been a steep rise in the use of marijuana and other illicit drugs in the past decade. So far it is primarily a youth phenomenon.
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From page 51... ...
This may signal a reversal of the upward trend in "daily" use unless higher absenteeism and school drop-out of daily users are significant factors in the decline. Multiple sources suggest that out-of-school age mates are heavier users than those in school.
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From page 52... ...
The deviant psychosocial attributes of marijuana users that were described almost a decade ago, when use of marijuana was a rare event, are just as characteristic of marijuana users today, when 60 percent of all high school seniors report some experience with the use of marijuana. Daily users show the extremes of these deviant behaviors but less deeply involved users also exhibit some deviancy.
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From page 53... ...
Studies should be undertaken to learn how peer influence can be reliably used to moderate or prevent marijuana use in young adolescents. Properly planned longitudinal cohort studies should be conducted on both the behavioral and physiological antecedents and consequences of the use of marijuana.
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From page 54... ...
Marijuana Users and Drug Subcultures New York: John Wiley, l973. Johnson, B.D.
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From page 55... ...
(ed.) Longitudinal Research on Drug Use: Empirical Findings and Methodological Issues.
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From page 56... ...
(ed.) Longitudinal Research on Drug Use: Empirical Findings and Methodological Issues Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Publishing Corp., l978.
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