Stanley E. Grupp

Marijuana Use in a Small College: A Midwest Example

The use of marijuana is a topic of much interest today not only among law enforcement and health officials, but among lay citizens as well. Parents are especially concerned over the alleged increase in the popularity of marijuana use among young people of college age and younger. Not uncommonly the subject is treated in an alarmist fashion by popular magazines proclaiming, for example, that the problem “has now spread far beyond its base in the hippie ghettos” (Life, 1967: 17). Marijuana “used to be the magic grass of the Negro ghetto, or the jazz world, or—more recently—the hippie community. But now it is entering the bloodstream of U.S. middle-class life” (Newsweek, 1967: 46).

The Economics of Drug Control Policies

The major findings of this analysis are four-fold:(1) It is both possible and appropriate to examine the economic effects of drug law enforcement within the context of supply and demand analysis.(2) Supply restricting enforcement is usually undesirable because it will increase the price of the drug in question and consequently increase criminal activities. Because the demand function for drugs such as heroin approaches infinite price elasticity, supply restricting enforcement will not greatly decrease the quantity consumed.(3) Demand-restricting enforcement activities (education, rehabilitation, substitute drugs) are preferable from an a priori standpoint because they will decrease both the quantity consumed and the drug price. Lesser amounts of crime will result.(4) A system where drugs may be obtained from appropriate medical sources legally has desirable results in terms of lowering the price of the drug and lessening criminal activity. But the tolerance phenomenon and the questionable applicability of...

Multiple Drug Use in a Sample of Experienced Marijuana Smokers

It is generally recognized that drug abuse today is a multidrug problem but few studies have concentrated on multiple drug abuse by marijuana smokers. This article describes actual and anticipated drug use by a sample of marijuana smokers who have moved well beyond the novitiate stage. College students, prison inmates, and ghetto Blacks are the source of data. Marijuana smokers differed markedly along most of the lines investigated. Experienced marijuana smokers in this sample are involved in the drug scene in different ways. Data indicate that a drug-anticipation syndrome exists which is distinguishable from the non-drug-anticipators. Anticipators are already more involved in the drug world and evidence suggests that they may be vulnerable to experimentation with heroin.

Work-Release—the Sheriff's Viewpoint:

The sheriff typically occupies a key position in county- administered work-release programs. Therefore, his views on work release are important, and he is an excellent source of information.

Adult Marijuana Use and Becker's Social Controls

Adults who smoke marijuana regularly but who are conventional in other respects are the subjects of study. The objective was to determine how a sample of adults handle the three social controls facing marijuana smokers depicted by Becker. A content analysis of the results of a self-administered questionnaire show that while some subjects are more concerned than others about these controls, they all use coping devices to deal with them.

“Meanings” toward Death: A TST Strategy

This paper describes a new method for operationalizing attitudes toward death utilizing the Twenty Statements Test format and emphasizes the social and symbolic nature of these attitudes. A theoretical rationale and empirical data are presented. Responses to the “What is Death?” question were obtained from seventy-nine nurses. Seventeen categories were generated from a content analysis of these responses. Coding reliability checks produced substantial agreement. Subjects expressed varied and contradictory meanings toward death which included religious, nonreligious as well as favorable and unfavorable attitudes. The TST strategy is uniquely appropriate for tapping the social, symbolic, and contradictory meanings that are often held of death.

The Assessment of Stigma: Implications for Theory and Intervention

Self-disclosure data from marijuana smokers are considered. Attention is given to disclosure patterns in relation to four types of reference individuals and to feelings about disclosure. Users were most likely to disclose and to feel comfortable about disclosing to high intimate and nonauthority reference individuals. They were less likely to disclose and to feel comfortable about disclosing (1) to low intimate and nonauthority reference individuals, and (2) to authority-reference individuals--irrespective of their intimacy with them. The implications of a self-disclosure-reference-individual strategy for the study of stigma and for intervention purposes are discussed.