Factors Associated with Illegal Drug Use in Rural Georgia

Abstract

Data assessing the extent of illegal drug use were collected in the spring of 1981 from 2,060 junior and senior high school students living in a rural county in southern Georgia. The sample consists of 83.2 percent of all students in grades 8 through 12 in the county. Only students absent from the public schools at the time the questionnaires were administered were excluded from the analyses. A private school in the county with less than 5 percent of all students refused to participate in the study. The study findings are basically consistent with research expectations. It was revealed that the respondents participated extensively in illegal drug use. Approximately 76.7 percent of the respondents indicated they had consumed alcohol at least once, 41.0 percent had tried marijuana at least once, 64.5 percent had tried cigarettes at least once, 16.0 percent had tried amphetamines at least once, and 12.2 percent had tried barbiturates at least once. The frequency of each illegal drug was regressed against selected independent variables and the findings revealed that ten variables explained 41.4 percent of the variance in alcohol use, eleven variables explained 57.3 percent of the variance in marijuana use, eight variables explained 28.7 percent of the variance in cigarette use, seven variables explained 30.4 percent of the variance in amphetamine use, and eight variables explained 35.7 percent of the variance in barbiturate use.