Becoming a Marihuana User Howard S. Becker The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Nov., 1953), 235-242. Stable URL: httpflinksjstor.orgsici?sici=01402-9602% 281953 11942059%3A3%9C235%3 ABAMU3B2.0,.CO%SB2-5 The Amencan Journal of Sociology is currently published by The University of Chicago Press, Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at flip: feworwjtor org/aboutterms.htmal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in par, that unless you fave obtained pcior permission, you may not dowaload an cnt isus of @ journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial uss. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at bhupsferww.jstoc.org/joumals‘ucpresshtel. 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This propel ears to recognize the elects (conned thes with drug use; and (3 learns ton, bused on an analysis of fity interviews with arvana. ‘ees, call into question tears which astbe Beas to anlecetenprefpotiogs aad tage the St al expla bebaworin terms of the emerge of ave sn disposi he couse o expen ‘The use of marihuana is and has been the focus of a good deal of attention on the part of both scientists and laymen. One of the major problems students of the practice hhave addressed themselves to has been the identification of those individual psycholog- ical traits which differentiate marihuana users from nonusers and which are assumed to account for the use of the drug. That ap- proach, common in the study of behavior ‘categorized as deviant, is based on the prem- {se that the presence of a given kind of be- havior in an individual can best be ex- plained as the result of some trait which pre- disposes or motivates him to engage in the behavior! ‘This study is likewise concerned with ac- counting for the presence or absence of marihuana use in an individual’s behavior. Iestarts, however, from a different premise: * Paper read atthe metings ofthe Midwest So- iologieal Soefety In Omains, Nebraska, Apel 25, 1983, "The research on which this paper based was done while was a rember ofthe taf of the Chi- ‘ago Narcotics Suevey, a study doae by the Chicago ‘Area Project, Toe.junder 4 grant from the National Mental Heaith Tastitete, My thanks to Solomon Kobrin, Harold Finestone, Henry McKay, and An sch Straus, who read and dlscimed with ie eaiiee ‘Versions of cis paper. Se, as example of this approach, the folloing Eli Marcavite and Heory J. Meyer, “The Mart bhoana Addict in the Army, Wor Malicine, VI(De- cembe, 1944), 382-91; Herbert S. Gaskill, "Mari hhunna, an Intoxicant,” Americ Journal of Peyehia. ty, CAE (September, 1948), 207-4, Sol Charen and Luis Perelman, “Personality Studies of Marihuana. Addicts" “American Journal of Peyehiaty, CIT (fare, 1948), 1-82, that the presence of a given kind of behavior {is the result of a sequence of social experi- ences during which the person acquires a conception of the meaning of the behavior, and perceptions and judgments of objects and situations, all of which make the activ- ity possible and desirable. Thus, the motiva- tion or disposition to engage in the activity is built up in thecourse of learning to engage in it and does not antedate this leaming process. For such a view itis not necessary to identify those “traits” which “cause” the behavior. Instead, the problem becomes one of describing the Set of changes in the per- son's conception of the activity and of the experience it provides for him? “This paper seeks to describe the sequence ‘of changes in attitude and experience which lead to the suse of marihuana for pleasure. Marihuana does not produce addietion, as do alcohol and the opiate drugs; there is no withdrawal sickness and no ineredicable craving for the drug. ‘The most frequent patter of use might be termed “recrea- tonal.” The drug s used occasionally for the pleasure the user finds in it, a relatively casual kind of behavior in comparison with that connected with the use af addicting drugs. The term “use for pleasure” is meant to emphasize the noncampulsive and casual * Thin approach stems fom George, Herbert Mead’s discussion of objects in Mind, Self, and So- shy (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1934), 5p. 277-80. Cs, Roger Adama, “Mariana,” Bulla of he Naw York deatomy of Medicine, XVII (Noverse bet, 1942), 705-80. 235286 character of the behavior. It is also meant to liminate from consideration here those few cases in which marihuana is used for its prestige value only, aa symbol that on¢ isa certain kind of person, with no pleasure at all being derived from its use. ‘The analysis presented here is conceived of as demonstrating the greater explanatory usefulness of the kind of theory outlined shove as opposed to the predispositions ‘theories now current. This may be seen in two ways: (1) predispositional theories eannot account for that group of users (hose existence is admitted)* who do not ‘exhibit the trait or traits considered to cause the behavior and (2) such theories ‘cannot accaunt for the great variability over time of a given individual's behavior with reference to the drug, The same person will at one stage he unable to use the drug for pleasure, ata later stage be able and willing to do so, and, stil Iater, again be unable to use it in this way. These changes, dificult to ‘explain ftom a predispositional or motiva- tional theory, are readily understandable in terms of changes in the individual's concep- tion of the drug as is the existence of “nor smal" tsers. ‘The study attempted to arrive at ¢ gen- eral statement of the sequence of changes in individual attitude and experience which have always occurred when the individual has become willing and able to use mari ‘buana for pleasure and which have not oc- curred or not been permanently maintained ‘when this is aot the case. This generaliza- tion is stated in universal terms in order tbat negative cases may be discovered and used to revise the explanatory hypothesis * Fifty interviews. with maribuana users “Ct Lamence Kafb, “Marihuana,” Federal Pro- aon TT Tal, 1958), 22-25; and Waiter Brombere, "Marfuana: A Payehintic Sey.” Journal of the Arete Mali Aston CX ly 1 198), ‘The method used is that described by Alfred R. indeenith in ls Opiate Addiction (Bloorlngton: Principia Pres, 1947), chap. {.T would lke alo to ackoowledae the imprtant role Lindesmith’s work played in shaping try thinking about the genesis of ‘THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY from a vatiety of social backgrounds and present positions in society constitute the ata from which the generalization was con- structed and against which it was tested* ‘The interviews focused on the history of the person's experience with the drug, seeking rafor changes in his attitude toward it and in bis actual use of it and the reasons for these changes. The final generalization is a statement of that sequence of changes in at- titude which occurred in every case knows to me in which the person came to use mari- hhuana for pleasure. Until a negative case is found, it may be considered as an explana- tion of all cases of marihuana use for pleas- ure, {a addition, changes from use to nomuse are shown to be related to similar changes in conception, and in each case itis possible to explain variations in the individual’s behav ‘or in these terms. ‘This paper covers only @ portion of the natural history of an individual's use of marihuana,’ starting with the person having arrived at the point of willingness to try marihuana. He knows that others use it to ‘get high,” but he does not know what this ‘means in concrete terms. He is curious about the experience, ignorant of what it may tura cout to be, and afraid that it may be more than he bas bargained for. The steps out- lined below, if he undergoes them all and ‘maintains the attitudes developed in them, leave him willing and able to use the drug for pleasure when the opportunity presents itself. 1 The novice does not ordinarily get high theirs time hesmokes maribuana, and sew- eral attempts are usually necessary to in- duce this state. One explanation of this may be that the drug is not smoked “properly,” that is, in a way that insures sufficient dos- age to produce real symptoms of intoxica- “Mot ofthe interviews mere doe hy the author. 1 am grateful to Solomon Kobrin and Harold Fine ‘one for allowing me to make ue of interviews done by then "Thape to deus eloewhere ather stages ia this tural history.