A Comparison of Drug Users and Non-Users on an Urban Commuter College Campus

Abstract

Questionnaires designed to elicit demographic and drug experience data were completed by 591 students of an urban communter campus. One hundred and thirty-nine students (24%) identified themselves as having had some experience with drugs. As compared to the non-user, the drug user was older and further advanced in his academic study. He tended to be engaged in liberal arts studies, rather than in a more specialized program, and he did not affiliate himself with a religious faith. He was an urban resident, lived independently of his parents, and was engaged in part-time employment. His parents were distinctly middle class in terms of education, occupation and salary, and his relationship with them was described as “neutral” or conflicted.” There were no significant differences between drug users and non-users in terms of sex, ethnic background, or academic standing, nor was the drug user easily or realistically discriminable from the total population in terms of other aspects of family structure measured in the present study.