Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 8-2008 Drug Use Sequencing and Kandel's Gateway Hypothesis John Reid Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Reid, John, "Drug Use Sequencing and Kandel's Gateway Hypothesis" (2008). All Theses. 447. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/447 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DRUG USE SEQUENCING AND KANDEL'S GATEWAY HYPOTHESIS A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Applied Sociology by John Matthew Reid August 2008 Accepted by: Dr. Brenda Vander Mey, Committee Chair Dr. Douglas Kinly Sturkie Dr. Margaret Tina Britz i ABSTRACT This thesis tests the hypothesis by Kandel (1975) that there is a specific sequence of drug use that users follow. Using the same scalogram analysis technique utilized by Kandel in her original Gateway Hypothesis study, a distinct sequence of use was discovered. This thesis is based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2005). This study confirmed Kandel’s earlier findings in that this study determined that there is a sequence of drug use. The current study also confirms Kandel’s position that licit drugs precede the use of illicit drugs. This study’s findings differ from those of Kandel, however, in that tobacco and not alcohol was found to be the first drug of experimentation. In the current study, the data were divided into two age cohorts to determine if changing the legal drinking age had any impact on sequencing. Findings indicate that the change in the legal drinking age had no effect on sequences of drug use. Binomial logistic regression analysis results support the scalogram analysis findings, resulting in the rejection of the null hypotheses that there is no sequence to drug use, that the sequence is tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hard drugs, and that the change in the legal drinking age would affect sequencing for those respondents who could not drink legally until the age of 21. ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents Martha C. and Donald L. Reid, my sister and Brother-in-law Donna and Earnie Banks and, of course, my fiancée Lisa C. Black. Without their continuing love and support this thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Dr. James Hawdon for accepting me into the sociology graduate program and for helping me establish a career in teaching. I would especially like to thank and dedicate this thesis to my dear and trusted friend Lucy. You were there helping and encouraging me at every turn. Your advice and your clarity were invaluable and I will never forget the many ways that you helped me. I owe you more than I could ever repay. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the members of my thesis committee for their time and contributions. Dr. Brenda Vander Mey deserves special recognition for chairing the committee and for committing her time and efforts to this endeavor. Additional thanks to Dr. Kinly Sturkie and Dr. Margaret Britz for their many contributions and unyielding support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE....................................................................................................................i ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 II. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES..........................................................................2 III. LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................6 Types of Drug Use...................................................................................8 Theories of Substance Abuse...................................................................9 Psychological Theories..........................................................................17 Biological Theories................................................................................21 The Gateway Hypothesis.......................................................................22 IV. METHODS..................................................................................................29 Description of Data Sets Used ...............................................................29 Demographic of the Sample...................................................................30 Research Questions and Hypotheses.....................................................34 Independent and Dependent Variables ..................................................35 Guttman Scaling.....................................................................................37 V. RESULTS....................................................................................................43 Comparison of Age Cohorts ..................................................................44 Logistic Regression................................................................................51 VI. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION ...............................................................67 v Table of Contents (Continued) Page APPENDICES ...............................................................................................................78 A: Survey Questions Used in Analysis.............................................................79 B: Age Cohort Analysis....................................................................................87 C: Variable Recodes.........................................................................................93 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................96 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Four types of drug use....................................................................................8 2. Number of all users (n) by drug type...........................................................48 3. Coefficient of reproducibility findings for all user by type of hard drug............................................................................................49 4. Coefficient of reproducibility findings for all users age 35 and above, by hard drug.........................................................................50 5. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by ever smoked a cigarette...............................................................................................53 6. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by ever had a drink of alcoholic beverage....................................................................54 7. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by gender...............................55 8. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by total family income....................................................................................................56 9. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by race...................................57 10. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by my religious beliefs influence my decisions...............................................................58 11. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by education ..........................59 12. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by ever tried a cigarette...............................................................................................60 13. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by age ....................................62 14. Probability of having tried marijuana (ever) by population density....................................................................................................63 15. Probability of having tried cocaine (ever) / ever tried marijuana ................64 16. Probability of having tried heroin (ever) / ever tried marijuana ..................64 vii List of Tables (Continued) Table Page 17. Probability of having tried crack cocaine (ever) / ever tried marijuana .......................................................................................65 18. Probability of having tried alcohol (ever) by ever smoked a cigarette..................................................................................66 viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Gateway hypothesis is one of the more controversial theses in the field of drug abuse research. Since the publication of Kandel’s groundbreaking study “Stages in Adolescent Involvement in Drug Use” in the journal Science in 1975 researchers have tried to determine whether the use of one drug leads to the use of other, more potent drugs. This hypothesis states that licit drug use almost always precedes illicit drug use. Currently the field is split into two camps. Some contend that licit drugs such as alcohol and tobacco serve as the gateway to the use of illicit substances. Others contend that the use of