Young men and drugs-a nationwide survey.

primary objective is to provide critical reviews of research problem areas and techniques, the content of state-of-the-art conferences, intearative research reviews and significant oriainal research. Its dual publication emphasis is rapid and targeted dissemination to the scientific and professional community. FOREWORD The National Institute on Drug Abuse publishes this landmark study with particular pride. Young mens' drug use has been examined in other nationwide studies, but none before has captured the most critical population and period of use. In the late 1960's nonmedical drug use increased nationally in a great, unprecedented surge. The Nation is still trying to deal with this new, higher level of drug use and to understand why it occurred. The young men contacted in this study were the population on the cutting edge of this dramatic change. This documentation of their experiences is an important piece of social history. Not only will this new knowledge help us understand a very puzzling and important social change in America, but it also offers clues to other nations which are only now beginning to recognize the global implications of these changing patterns of drug use. O'Donnell and his associates captured the right group at the right time. They also managed to collect an unusually rich array of information. This first report is an encyclopedia of contemporary American drug use. The data provide many possibilities for further analysis. Thus, while we work out the implications of this comprehensive and detailed first report, we can look forward to further understanding from continued mining of its rich data base. iii iv v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A study of this scale and precedent, to which so many contributed so much so unstintingly, makes adequate acknowledgment impossible. Our great thanks to those at each stage from conception onward who gave advice, review and support. Special appreciation is owed to Dr. David Nurco, who was primarily responsible for the contacts with Selective Service to obtain the sample; for arrangements so that inmates could be interviewed for several of the pretests; to Dr. Ira Cisin, Professor of Sociology at George Washington University, for crucial advice in the design and carrying out of the study. The tasks of recruiting, training and supervising interviewers, and of data management, would have been too great for the resources available to the investigators. An experienced survey organization was needed, and Temple University's Institute for Survey Research, in Philadelphia, was selected. Under the overall …