brown, james_turning off - cessation of marijuana use after college

8/14/2019 Brown, James_Turning Off - Cessation of Marijuana Use After College

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TURNING OFF: CESSATION OF MARIJUANAUSE AFTEK COLLEGE*JAMES W. BROWNFordham UniversityDANIEL GLASERELAINE WAXER

Universityof SouthernCaliforniaGILBERTGEIS

University of California,IrvineMarijuana use among recent alumni reflects prior diffusion of a student sub-culture with a variety of correlated norms and values. Constraints of family and

job, and change of associates after graduation, foster cessation of such drug usemore often than complete change from the other values of this subculture. Diffusionof norms and values of the student subculture among educated young adults offcampus is evident in many alumni not much involved in this subculture as students,especially in those who are late starters at marijuana use. Twice as high a rate ofvolunteering for interviews was elicited from long-term users as from non-users,suggesting that non-conformity and aberrant behavior foster opposite types ofpluralistic ignorance of the prevalence of deviance.Public opinion polls indicate that arapidacceleration f marijuanause oc-

curred on college campusesduring thelate 1960s, and by the early 1970s amajorityof college studentshad someexperiencewith the drug.Explanationsfor use of marijuana ollow well-estab-lished traditionsin the behavioralsci-ences: experimental personalities aresaid to be more likely to try it thantheir less venturesomepeers, as illegalbehavior and an inconoclastic act,"smokingpot" provides statusamongalienatedyouth; in Freudianterms, itis a meansof dramatically uttingOedi-pal or Electral ies by flauntingconven-tional rules. Other causal interpreta-tions move through the range of per-sonality variablesand social dynamicsin a litany that manages to includeapathy and the atomic bomb, educa-tional constraintsand ennui, as well asa host of otherpresumed"factors."This analysisoffers a moreparsimon-

* This studywas supportedy the Na-tional Instituteof Mental Health SmallGrantProgram nderAwardNo. I R03MH 21015-01.

ious socioculturalexplanationfor theheavy concentrationof marijuanauseamong post-adolescentgroups in theUnited States through a search foranswers to two basic questions: doindividuals continueor terminate heircollege pattern of marijuanause orabstinenceafter they end their under-graduatecareers?What are the corre-lates of any post-graduatepersistenceor alterationof studentdrug use prac-tices? To answer these questions weconducteda mailed questionnairesur-vey, and, thereafter, followup inter-views, among alumni of two southernCaliforniauniversities.

THEORYTESTEDThis study reflects observationsofthe authors and others that use of

marijuana s part of a distinctivestu-dent subculturewhich developed onAmericancampusesduring the 1960s,with values andnormsvariously abeled"the hang loose ethic" (Suchman,1968), "the student movement"(Flacks, 1970), "ConsciousnessIII"(Reich, 1970), and "marginalambi-


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SOCIAL PROBLEMS

valence" (Lipset and Schaflander,1971). Brown (1971) hypothesizedthat this "expressive student subcul-ture" s characterizedy broadvalues-love, peace,equality, ndividuality, ree-dom, and democracy-and by somemore definite behavioral norms-ex-pressiveexperimentation, ruguse, andpolitical protest. He demonstrated hediscriminantvalidity of indicatorsforthese values and norms,and their cor-relationwith marijuana se, in studentsat the Universityof Southern Califor-nia (Brown, 1973). Internalization fthe values and norms of this subculturewas a function of the extent to whichsubjects participated in the studentsocial world (e.g., they lived in anapartmentnear campus;most of theirclosest friends were also students).Within this social setting, marijuanause was correlatedwith majoring inthe humanitiesor social sciences,withchangingmajor,and with being youngand unmarried.Glaser (1971: Ch. 3) ascribedtheincreasing cultural differentiation ofyouth from adults in the United Statesto the growthandprolongationof theirsocialseparationrom adults.He notedthat if adolescenceis defined as theperiod between physicalmaturityandthe attainmentof economic self-suffi-ciency in adult roles, this stage in theUnited States more than doubled inaverageduration n the middle decadesof the twentieth century. Other de-velopments, such as employment ofboth parents after their children be-come teenagers,enhance the isolationof adolescentsociety. College studentsare especiallysegregated n what Par-sonsandPlatt (1970) call "studentry,"a newly widespread post-adolescentstage of life with intense anxiety.Our basic general explanation forthe distributionof marijuanause is

the fundamental aw of sociology andanthropology hat socialseparation ro-duces cultural differentiation.Part ofthe plethoraof evidence hatadolescentsubculturesare far from mythicalarethe findingsof polls that use of mari-juana (as well as "speed"and severalotherdrugs), andknowingpeoplewhouse suchdrugs,areboth ten to 15 timesas frequentamongpersonsaged 17-19yearsold as amongpersonsaged 50 orover (Glaser, 1971:38). A culturaldiffusionexplanationof this drug useis independentof but compatiblewithfunctionalspeculationsas to why thisparticular ulture rait differentiates hegenerationsso markedly.The essentialpoint here is only that a personsocial-ized in the expressivestudent subcul-ture, who often found marijuanausesocially prescribedin campus society,mayin the adult world find it distinctlyproscribed.Assumptionof adult roles,away from the student world, shouldthus create social and cognitive strainswith respect to the entire subculturalcomplexof valuesand normsof whichdrugusenormsarebut one component.We hypothesized: (1) that alumniwho used marijuanaas students butnot thereafterwould (A) have dimin-ishedtheir social contactswith students,and (B) altered all values and normsdistinctive of the expressive studentsubculture;(2) that the reverse pat-terns would occur with post-graduateinitiation of marijuanause; (3) thatthose who either used or abstainedfrom marijuanaconsistently, both asstudents and as alumni, would alterneither the extent of their contactwithcannabisusers nor the extent of theiradherence o or rejectionof other sub-cultural values and norms. We ex-pected the consistent users either toremainin a "pot-smoking" ocial set-ting or to compartmentalizeheir lives

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Turning Offmarkedly, n order to separateone setof associates rom the other. Ourstudywas largely exploratory,however, andsought a varietyof alumni to reveal awide rangeof alternativebehaviorpat-terns and changeprocesses.

PROCEDUREQuestionnaireswere mailed in June,1972, to a random sample of 1970BachelorDegree recipientsresident inLos Angeles County, 750 from the

Universityof SouthernCaliforniaand750 from California State Universityat Los Angeles. At the time of tabula-tion there was a 31 percent responsefrom the formergroup and 30 percentfrom the latter. Late returnsbroughtthe responserates to about 33 percent,and four percentwere returned as ad-dress unknown. For our purposes itwas appropriate o pool all 488 tabu-lated responses from the two alumnigroups, since they overlappedgreatlyin range of age, ethnicity,social class,and responsepatterns.No signature or other identifyinginformationwere requestedof respon-dents, but we indicatedthat if the sub-jectswere willing to be interviewedbyphone on theirviewpoints,they shouldwrite in their telephone number andfirst name. Fourty-twopercentdid so,and over 50 interviewswereconducted,

using a predominantlyopen-endedin-terviewguide.THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE

As indicatedin Table 1, a majorityof the respondents contacted by ustwo years after graduation had usedmarijuana.Fifteen percent we called"FormerUsers," since they had notused this drug for six months or more,althoughtheystarted ts use threeyearsor more previously. "Long-TermUsers" were defined by their initialexperience with marijuana three ormore years previously but use of itstill in the six months preceding oursurvey;they totaled 23 percent of therespondents.The residual 14 percentwho had used this drug we called"Late-Starters,"ince their first usewasduring the three years preceding oursurvey,about half startingbefore andhalf after their graduationtwo yearsearlier.

Only the Long-TermUsers includedpeople who reported smoking mari-juana most days of the month in thesix months before our survey,but onlysix percentof this group reportedusingit that frequently. Indeed, four-fifthsof the Late-Starters nd half the Long-Term Users who answered our ques-tions on use per month in this periodreported that they smoked no more

TABLE 1MARIJUANA USE PATTERNS AMONG UNIVERSITYALUMNI IN LOS ANGELESTwo YEARS AFTER GRADUATION

Defining CharacteristicsPattern First Used LastUsed No. Percent

Non-User Never Never 234 48Late Starter < 3 Years Ago < 3 Years Ago 71 14Long-Term User 3 Years Ago < 6 Mos. Ago 111 23Former User > 3 Years Ago > 6 Mos. Ago 72 15Totals 488 100

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SOCIAL PROBLEMSthan one day per month, on the aver-age. The finding that most of thosewho have smokedmarijuanahave usedit infrequently is consistent with re-sults of manypolls of college studentsand other youths (cf., National Com-mission, 1972:41).OBJECTIVE INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

Some reasonsfor diverse marijuanause patterns among alumni are sug-gested by the data in Table 2, whichindicateobjectivecharacteristicsf usertypes in our sample. Former Usersweredisproportionatelymaleswho nowwere married,and abouthalf of thosemarried were parents; apparently,asimplied by our theoretical perspec-tive, such role responsibilitiesmpededcontinuation of drug use. Long-TermUserswere somewhatyounger han theother alumni, and had less than halfthe percentage married as FormerUsers and Non-Users. They had thehighest proportions who were socialscience or humanitiesmajorsas under-graduates,who attended college full-time, and who classifiedtheir familiesas upper or upper-middle class. Allthese items are correlatesof marijuanause among college students n this area(Brown, 1971).Non-Users resembledthe FormerUsers in theirproportionsmarriedandparents, but differed in having thesmallest percentage who majored inthe social sciences or the humanities,the highest proportion who neverchanged their major, and the highestgrade point average. These data sug-gest that most Non-Usershad an earlyorientation to a conventional post-college role and this committedthemto the dominant societal norms fromthen on, while more of the FormerUsersacquired ucha commitmentonlyafter college. Late-Starterswere inter-

mediate in their frequencyfor all ofthe characteristicsabulated n Table 2except changing their major, whichthey did more frequentlythan any ofthe other three groups, perhaps ex-hibiting exploratoryinclinations herewhich they later extended to mari-juana.They were notablyclose to theLong-TermUsers in their small per-centagemarried.About two-thirdsof the alumni,anda majorityof each user type, were inprofessional or managerial positionstwo years after graduation. As ourinterviews revealed, such vocationalroles are far from incompatiblewithmarijuana sage. Long-TermUsershadthe highest proportionstill in the stu-dent role, as well as the highest pro-portion who at some time pursuedgraduate tudyon a full-timebasis,sug-gesting continuous close contact withcampus social circles. On the otherhand, they also had a slightly higherpercentagewho neverwent to graduateschool at all; their greatest differencefrom the others in graduatestudy is asmallerpercentagewho enrolled part-time,which is a patternmostcharacter-istic of persons studyingto foster up-ward mobility while employed (e.g.,teachers and social workers). Osten-sibly,the objectiveconditionsmost con-ducive to abstinence from marijuanaare an early and persistent commit-ment to a field of studyother thanthesocial sciencesor humanities,and thepursuit of a professional occupation;but neither of these provide a guaran-tee of abstinence.

VALUES, NORMS, AND ASSOCIATESAn abbreviatedversion of Brown's(1971) questionnaire identifying di-mensions of an "expressive studentsubculture"was included in our in-strument or alumni.Eight items were

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Turning OffTABLE 2

OBJECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS F USER TYPESUser Types

CharacteristicsSex (% male)Age (% 25 years oldor less)Social Class ofParents (% Check-ing Upper or

Upper-Middle)Marital Status:% Single% Married% Other

% Who are ParentsLiving With TheirChild or Children% Who Had CollegeMajor in SocialSciences or

Humanities% Never ChangedMajor% Grade PointAverage 3.0 orHigher% Who AttendedCollege Full-TimePost-Graduate

Schooling:% None% Part-Time% Full-Time

Present Occupation:% Professional% Managerial% Student% White Collar,skilled &unskilled% Other

Non-User(N = 234)

5858

LateStarter(N = 71)

5560

Long-Term(N = 111)6678

Former(N= 72)

7560

All Cases(N = 488)

6264

34 40 54 39 40

3561432

54351120

602812*11

3262631

4350725

32 45 49 40 39

57 45 49 49 5259 49 54 53 56

36 35 46

32422650171014

9

36461946301010

40233730261815

4 11

53 41

38313239311411

35372844231213

5 8* Includes 7 percent who indicated common-law marriage.

employed as indicators of the broadvalues of this subculture. For example,commitment to these values was in-ferred from disagreement with "Homo-sexuality is immoral" and "Adherence

to organized religion leads to indi-vidual self-fulfillment," as well as fromagreement with "American competi-tiveness is destructive of character"and"People have a right to ignore tradi-

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SOCIAL PROBLEMStional standardsgoverning the displayor use of their bodies."Table 3 showsthat the proportions indicating agree-ment with five or more of these items"now"-as alumni-is twice as highfor the Long-TermUsers as for theNon-Users, with Late-Starters andFormerUsers intermediate.Contradict-ing our Hypothesis 1B, all groups-even FormerUsers-indicated increasein the proportionagreeingwith thesevalues in the threeyearssince the endof their junior year in college, butper our secondhypothesis, he increasewas most pronounced in the Late-Starters.Adherence to Expressive Experi-mentation norms was assessed bythree items: disagreement with"Women should refrain from usingprofanity" and "I practice a conven-tional organized religion (e.g., Prot-

estant,Catholic,or Jewish)" butagree-ment with "I prefer wearing jeans,work clothes or other informal ap-parel in my social life ratherthan tra-ditional and formal clothes." Table 3indicates that these norms were mostcharacteristic f Long-TermUsers andleast characteristic f Non-Users, butthat FormerUsers did not changeandall other groups increased n the pro-portionadhering o thesenormsduringthe three years from undergraduateoalumnistatus,with Late-Startershang-ing most. The relativechanges of thefour groups, but not the absolutechanges,are as hypothesized.Drug Use norms were indicatedbysix items, such as disagreementwith"Peopleshould not try LSD or mesca-line" and "I sometimesrefrain fromgoing to or stayingat a gatheringbe-causedrugsare used there,"but agree-TABLE 3

PERCENT OF EACH USER TYPE INDICATINGAGREEMENT WITH EXPRESSIVESTUDENT SUBCULTURE VALUES AND NORMS NOW (TWO YEARS AFTER

GRADUATION) AND, AS THEY RECALL,THREE YEARS AGO (ASUNDERGRADUATES)

User TypesLate-Sets of Values Non-User Starter Long-Term Former

or Norms* Time (N = 234) (N = 71) (N=111) (N=72)Subcultural Values Now 34 52 72 543 Yrs.

Ago 27 35 60 44Expressive Experi- Now 50 65 84 67mentation Norms 3 Yrs.Ago 41 51 73 67Drug Use Norms Now 26 62 85 613 Yrs.Ago 25 38 85 69Political Dissent Now 35 46 64 46

Norms 3 Yrs.Ago 35 38 66 53* Indicators for these values and norms are described in the text. Agreement is opera-tionalized as giving the subcultural response for five or more of the eight indicators forvalues, for two or more of the three items for Expressive Experimentation Norms, forthree or more of the six Drug Use items, and for three or more of the six Political Dissentitems.

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Turning Offment with "I have intimate friendswho use marijuana."Table 3 shows, asexpected, that only Former Users de-creased n frequencyof agreementwiththese norms, and that Late-Startersshifted morethan did the othergroups.Political dissent norms were mea-sured by six items, including agree-ment with "I have participated inanti-war demonstrationsin the pasttwo years,"but disagreementwith "Icriticize those leftists who are tryingto wreck the Americansystem"and "Igenerally prefer Republicanto Demo-cratic candidates."Table 3 indicatesthat only Late-Startersncreased n theproportionaffirming hese norms, andthat the proportionof Former Usersadhering o them diminished.This waspreciselyas hypothesized.Responses to retrospective nquiriesabout the leisure time associates ofthese subjects three years before thesurvey,at the end of their junior year,and currently as alumni, are sum-marized in Table 4. It shows that inthis three-yearspan the Late-Startersdecreased more than any other usertype in the proportion who said thatstudents predominated in their free-timegatherings,but theyalso decreasedmost in the proportion who reportedthat marijuanawas not used at any ofthesegatherings.Apparently,marijuanause norms were diffusing increasinglyin non-studentsocial circles. Consistentwith our Hypothesis1B, there was anincreasein the proportion of FormerUserswho encounteredno marijuana tthe social gatherings they attended.The data are in only slight contradic-tion to our third hypothesis by thesmall decline, from student to alumnidays, in the proportionof Long-TermUsers who report marijuanaused atover 25 percentof leisure events theyattend,and in the proportionof Non-

Users who state that they never seemarijuanaused at their gatherings.NoNon-Users reported the presence ofmarijuanaat ten percent or more atthe gatheringsthey attended,either asstudentsor as alumni;the userswho re-ported such frequentcontactwith thisdrug in their social life indicated thatas alumni, more frequently than asstudents,they encountereduse of thisdrug in non-student ettings.Two interviewswith alumni in oursample illustrate the processes ofchange n association nd of consequentacculturationwhich our statisticsimply.A FormerUser: Turning Off

Tom, 24 and married,graduated nbusinesswith average grades in 1970;and has supportedhimself as a bankexecutivefor the past two years,sincehe moved awayfrom his upper-middleclass home in Los Angeles. His fatheris a senior administrativeofficer at ahospital.Tom first tried marijuanawhen afreshman in college because,he says,"Everyonewas trying it." He reportsthathe did not get much fromthe drugat first, but later would become veryhigh, more extroverted and happierthan usual, similar to getting drunk.He smokedaboutonce a week for fiveyears, except during his sophomoreyear, when he "smokedpot every dayfor six to nine months." He neversmokedalone,only with friends.In his junioryear,Tom beganlimit-ing his marijuana mokingto weekendsbecausehe startedgoing with the girlhe later married.She did not smoke,andthoughshe did not mind his smok-ing, he found it no fun to smoke alone.After graduation, he stopped com-pletely when he procureda bank posi-tion, saying,"I was afraid a bustwouldruin my career." He says it was not

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TABLE 4LEISURETIME ASSOCIATES,NOW AND THREE YEARS AGO, BY US

LatNon-User StartInquiry Time (N = 234) (N =

Are (were) your free-time asso- Now 26 20dates mostlystudents?(% "Yes") 3 Yrs.Ago 58 70Proportion f leisuregatheringsI attend(ed) wheremarijuanais (was) used:% "Zero" Now 60 213 Yrs. Ago 73 57

% "Over25%" Now zero 203 Yrs.Ago zero 13For thoseanswering10%or moreto the above:Do (did) the othersthere include Now -56

students? (% "Yes") 3Yrs. Ago - 88


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Turning Offdifficult o give up marijuana, lthoughhe missed it somewhat at first andmight use it again "sometime" n thefuture.More than half of Tom's old schoolfriends smoke marijuanaand he be-lieves that it is used by 90 percentofthe people he supervisesat work. Hestill spendsmuchfree timewith friendswho smoke,though most do not whenhe is with them. He indicatedon hisquestionnairethat the proportion ofleisure gatherings he now attends atwhich marijuana s used is about tenpercent,but that threeyears ago it was50 to 75 percent.His parentsare defi-nitely against marijuanaand do notknow he used it. He says his userfriends do not pressurehim to smoke,while his wife and his work peers,though somewhat negative, are ambi-valent aboutmarijuanause.Tom considershimself somewhatofa non-conformist.He does not dressina conservative fashion at work andwears his hair over his ears.He wouldlike to experiment in group sex, buthis wife would not. He said he is aliberalDemocratbut in no way a radi-cal. He participated n some campusdemonstrations gainst he warin Indo-china,but feels that changemust comefrom within the system. He says hisattitudes have not become more con-servative since college and stoppingmarijuana use. He says he is stillbasicallymaterialistic, ut (sic) doesn'twant anything extravagant, only totravel and to have "a nice house andcar."Sometypeof socialism n the U.S.is coming,he predicted, hatwill provea happy medium between the demo-cratic and communistcountries.Tomwas in agreementwith three-fourthsofthe value and norm statementsindi-cating the ExpressiveStudent Subcul-ture. He seems to have received a

permanent impact from that culture,despitehis abandoning ts drug normswith the commitment o an appearanceof conformity which comes with hispresent employmentand most of hiscurrentsocial life.A Late-Starter:Turning On

Donna, 23 and single, graduated ndental hygiene with average grades in1970 and has supportedherself as adentalhygienistfor the past two years.When she was 19 she movedawayfromher middle class home in a suburbanarea known for its extreme conserva-tism, where her father is a businessexecutive.Donna first smoked marijuana woyearsago, when shewas seeing a youngmanwho used it. She saysthat she justtried marijuanafor curiosityand feltno effects from it the first time, butshe has since smokedabouteveryotherweekend. She never uses marijuanawhen alone, and saysshe would prob-ablystopif all her friendsstopped.Shedoes not plan to use it any more fre-quently in the future, saying that she"doesn't do anything in extremes."Only two of her friends have triedother illegal drugs-LSD and cocaine-but she saysthat she has never triedsuch drugs,as she is afraid of side ef-fects. While only a few of her co-workers mokemarijuana, alf to three-quartersof her datesuse it, as do mostof her friends and acquaintances.Herfamily knows she smokes and wasshockedat first;but she saysthat theyultimately realized that she "has totry everything." Nothing she doesshocks them now, she explains, be-cause her younger brother has beenarrestedtwice for possession of dan-gerous drugs.Donna considers herself to be non-conventional in her attitude toward

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS

life, but she dressesconventionally, ndhas a typical apartment.She describedherself to a female interviewer assexually a non-conformist, althoughshe does not want to have sexual rela-tions in groups or with homosexuals.She is not planning on marriageandwould not give up a career for it, butshe is not against marriageeither. Shesays that she supportsWomen's Lib-eration,but that she does not identifywith the "youthsubculture,"althoughshe is "veryfree and open" and doesher "own thing." Politically, she con-siders herself "very liberal" and sup-ports protest, but thinks we shouldseek change within the system.She isprofessionallyambivalent,wishing shehad becomea lawyerrather han a den-tal hygienist. She was in agreementwith over two-thirdsof the question-naire indicatorsof ExpressiveStudentSubculture aluesand norms.Donna's acculturation n the sub-culturebegan during her last yearsincollege, when living awayfrom home,and occurred gradually. While nolonger seeing many students,she nowhas friends who were more fully en-culturated in it when they were incollege; and her norms on drug usagehave changedwith her social life.MARIJUANAUSE AND PLURALISTICIGNORANCE

Of both methodologicaland theo-retical interest was the serendipitousfinding that 72 percent of the Long-Term Userswrotetheirtelephonenum-ber and first nameon the questionnaire,to indicate heirwillingnessto be inter-viewed.This was morethandouble the35 percentof volunteersamongFormerUsers and 31 percent among Non-Users. Late-Starterswere intermediatein this matter,with 44 percentvolun-teering to be interviewed.

This findingthatthe most frequentlydeviant persons are also the mostwilling to discuss their deviance,sug-gests that theymaybe over-representedin this and othersurveys.The tendencyof non-deviants to spurn researcherson deviancewas postulatedby criticsofthe Kinsey studies of sexual behavior,and of other investigationswhich re-port that deviant behavior is morewidespread han is commonlyassumed(cf., Himmelhoch and Fava, 1955:Chs. 9 and 10). On the other hand,an unpublished finding by Short, insurveysof admitteddelinquencyamonghigh school students, was that thosewho volunteeredto be interviewedbywritingtheir names on otherwiseanon-ymousquestionnaires id not differsig-nificantly rom non-volunteers n theirscoreson a delinquency cale.These contrasting findings on thebias in informationsuppliedby volun-teers raisequestionsas to whetherthephenomenonof "pluralisticgnorance"(Merton, 1957:377), our unaware-ness of the private acts or beliefs ofour associates, reduces or intensifiesnormativeconflict n society.This con-fusion maybe resolvedby noting Mer-ton's (1971:829-832) distinction be-tween two forms of deviance,noncon-forming and aberrantbehavior.Mari-juanause among recentalumniat thistime appears o be nonconformingbe-haviorin Merton'ssense,because hosewho use the drug are eager to talkabout it. They questionthe legitimacyof the norms they are violating, andtry to change these norms. Indeed,about the time our questionnairewasdistributed a ballot initiative cam-paign was begun which sought, un-successfully, to legalize marijuanainCalifornia.It receivedone-thirdof thestate's votes, but is reported to havehad a clear majority among college

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Turning Offstudents. Because non-conformistsaremore outspoken about their beliefsthan most of the population, heycreatea pluralistic gnoranceof the extent ofdisagreementwith their views, an un-awareness of the "silent majority"which opposes them. This type ofpluralistic ignorance fosters societalconflict and change by creating illu-sions of the extent of popular supportfor normative change. On the otherhand, the delinquentacts which Shortstudiedwere mainlyaberrant cts,suchas stealing, which violate norms thatare verbally endorsed even by thosewhose behavior contradicts he norms.Becausethose who violate such normsdo not talk aboutit, they createplural-istic ignoranceof the numberof peoplewho engage in aberrant behavior,which probablyreducesnormativecon-flict-people are not as shocked asthey would be if they knew all thatpeople keep hidden.An item analysis of Short's data(distributed in dittoed form at the1957 American Sociological Associa-tion meetings), confirms the aboveinterpretation.While his volunteersdidnot differ markedly from non-volun-teers in total delinquency score, theitems which many more volunteersthan non-volunteers reported were:"Bought or drank beer, wine orliquor," "Drove car too fast or reck-lessly," and "School probationor ex-pulsion." These may all be regardedas non-conformistratherthan aberrantacts by high school students;they ex-press their desire for independencebysuch behavior, challenging the au-thority of parents and teachers whostrive to keep them in more childlikedependence. On the other hand, sig-nificantly more non-volunteers thanvolunteers admitted sexual relationswith personsof the samesex, which in

small towns of Washington in the1950s, where this research was con-ducted, was distinctly aberrant be-havior. Inconsistent with the abovecontrastwereShort's indingsthatmorevolunteers than non-volunteersadmit-ted taking things worth less than twodollarsthatdid not belongto them;butmore non-volunteers than volunteersadmittedthat they "morethan once ortwice" took things worth fifty dollarsor more, hurt someone "just to makethem squirm,"and used force to takemoney from people. Perhaps pettyaberrance,by being correlated withnon-conformity,s also correlatedwithvolunteeringto communicate boutde-viance,but grosslyaberrantbehavior snegativelycorrelatedwith such volun-teering.

CONCLUSIONOur study of alumni is consistentwith previous surveys of students inits evidencethat marijuanause largelyreflects diffusion of an "expressivestudent subculture"which is a com-

plex of correlatedvalues and norms.Those who ceased marijuana useseemedto do so largely as a result ofacquiringcommitmentto non-studentroles and becoming socially isolatedfrom marijuanausers. They did notlose all of the values and norms dis-tinctive of this subculture, however,perhapsbecausethese traits are diffus-ing into the dominantculture.Indeed,an appreciable proportion of alumnibegan marijuanause only near the endof their college yearsor after gradua-tion, as a result of this diffusion.

Prospects for legalization of mari-juana in the United States and forgrowth of the ExpressiveStudent Sub-culture'sother values are enhancedbythe growing proportion of this na-tion's most influentialcitizens who, as

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brown, james_turning off - cessation of marijuana use after college

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