The Relationship between Drug Use and Perceived Harmfulness

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Abstract
The present study was an extension of previous research on the perceived harmfulness of commonly used illicit and licit drugs. A large number of college students were asked to report on their experience with a number of drugs. These students were also asked to rate each drug on the degree to which they perceived that drug to be harmful or harmless. From their pattern of use, subjects were classified as being members of one of the following five groups: principled non-users, non-users, light users, moderate users and heavy users of marijuana. One-way analysis of variance was performed on the harmfulness ratings for each of the 12 drugs across groups. Results indicated that the groups differed significantly on their rating of the harmfulness of several drugs. Typically, these differences can be attributed to the contrast between the principled non-users of marijuana group and the other user groups. Cluster analysis was performed on the matrix of intercorrelations among the harmfulness ratings of the drugs by the combined non-users groups, the combined users groups and the total sample. The results of the cluster analysis indicated that for all subjects combined there were five major clusters, and for all non-users there were four major clusters as there were for all users. The drugs that comprise each cluster of drugs for each group and the mean harmfulness rating of the drugs within each cluster are reported. It was found that the users groups clustered LSD with cocaine, marijuana and hashish while the non-users clustered LSD with heroin. It was also found that within this sample, there were sex differences on the usage of marijuana, hashish, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, caffeine and aspirin. There were also sex differences on the harmfulness ratings of marijuana, hashish, cocaine, LSD and alcohol. The results of this study were compared with the results of previous research on the relationship between drug usage and the perceived harmfulness of drugs. Implications for future research are discussed.

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