Consumption Patterns among Socially Integrated Drug Users

Use of illicit drugs by socially integrated people has attracted increasing political and scientific attention. Prominent key words for the categories under which respective studies were carried out are “controlled” or “recreational” drug use and drugs in “bourgeois milieus”. Socially integrated drug use was defined as weekly cannabis herb and/or resin consumption during the last half year prior to the interview and/or at least monthly consumption of ecstasy and/or cocaine and/or amphetamines during the same time. A large majority of the socially integrated drug users had taken cannabis in the month prior to the interview, herb much than resin. Drug use of socially integrated persons is experimental or temporary; lifetime prevalence therefore is usually higher than current prevalence. General population studies consistently show that many drug users have used more than one illegal drug in their life, and that experimental use is high.