IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v23y1986i7p717-719.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patterns of drug use among adolescents: The past decade

Author

Listed:
  • Smart, Reginald G.
  • Adlaf, Edward M.

Abstract

In recent years investigators have examined patterns of drug use among various populations. None, however, have examined the changes in drug patterns over time. The present study analyzed changes in patterns of drug use among a population of drug-using adolescent students in Ontario (Canada). Three cross-sectional surveys conducted in 1968, 1977 and 1985, which sampled students in grades 7, 9, 11 and 13 (ranging in age from 12 to 20 years), were employed.Using eight substance types as measures (cannabis, barbiturates, stimulants, tranquillizers, inhalants, LSD, heroin and others), four general patterns were constructed: single-drug psychotherapeutic users; exclusive cannabis users; and multiple-illicit. The findings indicated the following: (i) a significant decrease in the representation of both exclusive and multiple psychotherapeutic users between 1968 and 1977; (ii) a significant increase in exclusive cannabis users between 1968 and 1977, and following this a decline into 1985; and (iii) a significant increase in multiple illicit users between 1968 and 1977. In all a major shift from a psychotherapeutic-illicit dichotomy to an overwhelming illicit pattern has occured during the past decade.

Suggested Citation

  • Smart, Reginald G. & Adlaf, Edward M., 1986. "Patterns of drug use among adolescents: The past decade," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 717-719, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:23:y:1986:i:7:p:717-719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(86)90120-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    drug use polydrug use;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:23:y:1986:i:7:p:717-719. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.