Drug Use and Social Integration

Abstract

In earlier papers the author, among others, has attempted to view the increasing nonmedical use of various drugs from a diffusion theory point of view, with reasonable empirical success. It has been repeatedly found that young drug users resemble other groups of innovators or introducers on variables such as sex, socioeconomic background, educational level, and self-reported level of interaction in peer groups of many kinds (Ulff-Møller, 1971; Winsløw, 1972, 1972b). It has also been repeatedly demonstrated that the recent diffusion of cannabis use has followed a more or less S-shaped cummulative curve, while both the time of the onset of the diffusion process and its speed have been seen to be dependent upon the level of urbanization of the community in which the spread took place (Holstein in Winsløw, 1972c).