Among youth and adults, less than one in 20 (4.8% and 4.6% respectively) report having tried LSD or a similar hallucinogen at least once, although 24% of the adults and 29% of the youth report knowing someone who has used them. Among adults with hallucinogen experience, 60% reported their most recent use was more than six months ago; youth, however, tend to report more recent use and about 70% reported use within the past six months. (See Table II-25.)

In order to gauge the potential for LSD use in the future, all respondents were asked what they would probably do if drugs of this type became legal and available. Only 1.2% of the adults and 2.5% of the youth said they would probably try it under conditions of legality and availability. Further, those who reported no experience with LSD were also asked if they would like to try it or a similar drug "once to see what it is like." Less than .5% of either age group said they would very much like to see what these drugs were like; another 2% of adults and 4% of the youth said they might try it, but they were not sure.

Glue, Other Inhalants

The inhalation of glue or other vapors is essentially a youth phenomenon which, for the most part, seems to have passed its peak. Among the adult population, 2% have reported some experience with inhalants, most of it occurring more than one year ago. Six percent of the youth, however, have tried inhalants at least once, and among those with experience, two-thirds (4%) report their most recent experience with these substances was more than a year ago. None of the adults and .1% of the youth who have never tried inhalants indicated that they would definitely like to try them in the future. (See Table II-26.)

Table 11-26.-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE WITH GLUE AND OTHER INHALANTS

Although less widely available and more expensive than heroin, somewhat larger proportions of both youth and adults report experience with cocaine than with heroin, but the differences are not statistically significant. Three percent of the adults and 1.5% of the youth report that they have tried cocaine at least once, and an additional 2% of the adults and 5% of the youth without cocaine experience indicated that they might like to try this drug in the future. One percent of the adults and 3% of the youth said they would probably try it if cocaine were legal and available.

Heroin 5

Heroin was found by the Commission's National Survey to have the lowest reported rate of incidence of all drugs included in this study. 1.3% of the adults and .6% of the youth reported that they had tried heroin at least once although 20% of the former and 21% of the latter claimed to know someone who has used heroin.

Of those who had never tried heroin, slightly more than 1% of the adults and 3% of the youth indicated that they might like to try heroin at some time just to see what it was like. Even if legal and available, only about 1% of both groups said they would try it. (See Table II-27.)

"The Commission emphasizes that household surveys do not generally pick up "street" users of cocaine and heroin and therefore underestimate both the incidence and prevalence of such use.

Youth and adults who try and use LSD, cocaine or heroin are most likely to be found in the group of persons who regularly smoke cigarettes, are regular consumers of alcohol (used within the last week), have some experience with marihuana, and use ethical psychoactive drugs (and alcohol) for self-defined non-medical purposes such as coping with stress.

The Commission wishes to point out, however, that the existence of this association between the use of these three drugs (LSD, cocaine and heroin) and the use of other drugs should not be taken to mean a causal link. The Commission has found no evidence, either in its review of the research literature or the studies it has conducted, to support the theory of a causal relationship. What the data do demonstrate, however, is that there is an identifiable segment of our population which uses various drugs, either singly or in combination, for

varying reasons, ranging from curiosity and recreation to coping with stress. The use of no specific drug, however, inevitably leads to the use of any other drug, although there may be a non-specific process of conditioning to the psychological reinforcements of drug experiences.

II

DRUG USE AMONG STUDENTS

Up to this point, the data we have presented were drawn exclusively from the Commission's National Survey of American youth and adults relative to their drug-using experiences and related attitudes and behavior.

Many of the findings emphasize the fact that most Americans, when thinking about drug use tend to associate it in some important ways with youth. Indeed, almost half of the people (49%) who expressed a definite concern about drugs as one of the two or three most serious problems facing our nation today see drugs specifically as a problem of the young.

Due to the mounting public concern over the increase in the incidence of student drug use from the college campus down to the junior high (and occasionally elementary) school, the Commission decided to devote a segment of this Report to the phenomenon of student drug use at the secondary school and college levels.

During the past two years, the Commission made a concerted effort to obtain all of the student surveys undertaken throughout the country from 1965 to the present and has developed a file of more than 200 student surveys. The more than 900,000 student respondents represented in these surveys constitute figures corresponding to about 3% of this nation's junior and senior high school students, about 2% of American college undergraduates and approximately 2% of all young Americans between 12 and 21 years of age.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Before proceeding with our analysis of the survey incidence data, a brief explanatory note relative to sampling and statistics is necessary. Undoubtedly, the basic question is the extent to which statistics drawn from any sub-segment of a population are generalizable to and representative of the total population under study. By definition, a sample represents only a small part of a larger aggregate or universe (secondary school or college students, for example) about which information is sought, and the data collected in surveys of selected samples are subject to bias and variation; consequently, the estimates

and validity, both of which are statistically measurable and dependent upon proper sampling techniques.

The reader will note that the composite incidence figures drawn from the student surveys sometimes differ considerably from those derived from the Commission's National Survey. The 1972 composite mean incidence figure for college student use of marihuana, for example, was calculated to be 50%; the corresponding 1972 National Survey figure, however, is 67%.

The seeming discrepancy is not in the figures themselves but in what they represent. It should be remembered that the National Survey figures were drawn at one point in time from a national household probability sample, and the figure presented is the actual figure reported by the respondents. The student survey figures, however, are composites; they represent the average (not actual) figures reported from selected local on-campus surveys whose composite may not be representative of all secondary school and college students in the United States.

They do, however, indicate demographic characteristics of particular student bodies whose experience with drugs may have increased relative to that of the population as a whole. From the National Survey figures, for example, we know that drug experience generally tends to be greater among teenagers and young adults than among pre-teens and those over 30; among those residing in metropolitan rather than in rural areas; among those in the Northeast and West than in the South and North Central areas. These same tendencies appear in the data drawn from the student surveys.

The figures presented here are meant to be taken as indicators, not as absolutes; they are intended to provide some guidance relative to the nature and extent of drug experience among a substantial though not necessarily representative sample of the student population.

To the extent that the students surveyed begin to mirror the student population-at-large, figures and trends similar to those found in the National Survey will emerge. The extent to which they are different, however, signifies the existence of some sampling bias.

The Commission places confidence in both figures, however, and the reader is cautioned to utilize the data in the context presented rather than to compare them absolutely one to the other. They demonstrate conclusively that the incidence of drug use among secondary school and college students has increased dramatically, both absolutely and relatively, since the late 1960's.

"The degree to which the survey, if repeated several times and the results combined, would yield similar estimates.

'The degree to which the estimates drawn from the sample mirror the "true" figures of the total population, if one were to query everyone.