NCJ Number
153846
Journal
Addiction Research Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: special issue (1994) Pages: 1-133
Editor(s)
L Harrison,
S Mugford
Date Published
1994
Length
133 pages
Annotation
Eight articles explore the natural history of cocaine use, drawing upon similar studies conducted in disparate geographic locations.
Abstract
The studies used key "informants" who referred interviewers to friends with the requisite characteristics, who referred them to suitable others. To increase sample sizes, some studies also recruited respondents through media advertisements. Included in this issue are community-based studies of cocaine users in the United States, Canada, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Australia. Also included is a U.S. study of cocaine sellers, mostly middle- class wholesalers who used large amounts of cocaine. The final article is a theoretical paper on the meaning of drug consumption in modern industrialized societies. The studies reached a number of similar conclusions. Although many cocaine users escalated use for some period of time, most also de-escalated use. The frequency of cocaine use, the use of other drugs, and the mode of administration were found to be related to adverse consequences. Users were governed by a variety of rules to keep their cocaine use from becoming compulsive. Many controlled users were socially fully integrated and placed great importance on their families, jobs, and other roles and responsibilities, so cocaine use had to find its place among a number of competing activities. Article references and tabular data