Differential Patterns of Drug Abuse among White Activists and Nonwhite Militant College Students

Abstract

During the past ten years, we have seen the appearance of two parallel phenomena on the college campuses of America: (1) the progressive spread of illicit drug use, and (2) the surge of student activism and militancy among both white and nonwhite college students. Results of empirical studies and estimates regarding the extent of illegal drug use among college students vary from as low as five per cent to as high as seventy-five per cent (Keniston, 1969). During the same period, student activism has taken on new and more violent forms. Buildings have been forcibly occupied. Deans have been captured. Time-bombs have been systematically exploded. Students have marched on campuses with their guns. Recent incidents of firepower backlash at Kent and Jackson State Universities aroused much of the nation.