Young Men and Drugs in Manhattan: A Causal Analysis

摘要

The report examines the etiology and natural history of drug use with a special focus on heroin. One element of the study is a composite index of illicit drug use, the Lifetime Drug Use Index, constructed to reflect the extent and frequency of use of various substances. It is easy to construct and based on types of information usually obtained in surveys of drug use. Other chapters deal with lifetime prevalence and its correlates, incidence and the drug epidemic, predictors of illicit drug use, and causal models to explain illicit drug use. The technique of path analysis was used to test causal models derived from theories of deviance; selling drugs emerged as the key variable. It is indicated that marijuana may be the key gateway drug for understanding multiple drug use and that use of heroin is strongly correlated with extent of use of marijuana. (In the Manhattan sample, percentage of heroin users ranged from 1% of men who had never used marijuana to 56% of those who had used marijuana 1000 or more times). The concluding chapter seeks a theoretical synthesis of causative forces in drug abuse.