Patterns of Drug Use in a High School Population

The authors report the results of their questionnaire survey on drug use among high school students in southwestern Florida. They found that 24 percent of the students had used an illegal drug at least once, that certain types of drugs are used more often than others, and that boys and girls differ in the types of drugs they use. The authors also found two basic patterns of drug use, one for tolerance-type drugs (amphetamines, barbiturates, opiates, and "glue") and the other for nontolerance-type drugs (marijuana); hallucinogens were used to some extent by both groups. A number of personal and attitudinal variables were found to be related to the different patterns of drug use.