Public-Service Drug-Use Scales: Rationale, Derivation, and Norms

Abstract

In several counties in Ohio drug use by school-going teenagers has been found to be less than many have supposed. The author describes the development of four-item drug-use scales for beer and wine, cigarettes, hard liquor, marijuana, speed, LSD, and “other” drugs. He shows drug use to increase with grade level (7th to 12th); boys to outrank girls.