A University System Drug Profile

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine current patterns of drug usage and related behavior of college, university, and junior college students in the University System of Georgia. A maximum saturation survey technique, utilizing a 112-item questionnaire as the primary research tool, resulted in a usable sample of 24,609 student respondents. The focus of attention was on student usage patterns of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, LSD, glue, narcotics, stimulants, hallucinogens and depressants. An attempt is made to determine patterns of drug use (estimates of current use, history of use, and plans for future use); attitudes, beliefs, and drug use (attitudes toward drug use, and legal controls, and informed sources about drugs); and demographic variables and drug use (sex, age, religion, marital status, spending money, race, parental drug use and attitudes, student living group, and class standing). If one were inclined to construct a profile of a typical university system drug user from the relative frequencies of drug use reported in this paper, it would appear as follows. The student would be a Caucasian, senior male, 21 years of age or older, divorced, Jewish, residing in a commune or on-campus married housing/Greek housing, with access to more spending money than his average peer.

The value of the University System of Georgia drug study lies in the representativeness and size of the sample, number of items in the questionnaire, and the resulting base-line data which enables the system to know the level of usage among its current student population. Before programs can be generated based on these data, it is recommended that a followup of this survey be conducted within the next 12 months.