Some current studies of psychoactive and hallucinogenic drug use.

Abstract

Current increases in drug use may mean that many persons studied by psychologists are affected. A study of a hippie subculture showed extensive, indiscriminant nonnarcotic drug use amongst hippies, and indifference to harmful drug effects. Amongst high-school students alcohol and tobacco are still the most popular drugs, but marijuana, LSD, and psychoactive drugs are used by substantial numbers. Drug use relates to sex, grade level, and parental use of alcohol and tobacco. Social contact with other users, imitation of parental drug-use patterns, and the psychological disturbances of users are partial explanations for drug use among young people. Progress in research is inhibited by tendencies to (a) define all non-alcoholic drug use as abuse, (b) classify drugs as good or bad, (c) study users without reference to their total drug use. The past five or six years have seen remarkable increases in the extent of drug use in North America. For example, in 1963 in Toronto there was only one arrest for marijuana offences, but by 1968 there were 569. Also, the best data available suggest that the numbers of barbiturates and amphetamines sold in Canada doubled between 1962 and 1965, the last year for which data are available.1 The extensive use of such drugs in certain college and adult populations may well change many of the behaviours that psychologists study in surveys or experiments - one thinks, of course, of perceptual or personality variables, but other behaviours may also be modified. Until very recently there seemed to be little concern by psychologists or other social scientists with this phenomenon. This paper reports some recent studies of non-narcotic drug use and outlines some of the general characteristics of current drug-use research. DRUG USE IN A HIPPIE SUBCULTURE