Chapter - I

Introduction

1. Introduction

2. What is drug

3. Drug addiction

4. History of drug addicts

5. Various types of drugs and it's effects

6. Some myths about drugs

7. Present trends in using drugs

8. Various models of drug use

9. Factors affecting to drug addicts

10. Theories of drug Addiction

11. Attitude

12. Attitudes leading to conforming behaviour

13. Characteristics of attitude

14. Measurement of attitudes

15. Attitudeformation

16. Attitude change

17. Aim of the present study

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 Chapter - I
Introduction

1. Introduction:
When a child is born, he is like a blank slet. As he grows up he comes
into contact with numerous persons and groups and he interacts, it means he
becames social through the process of socialization. Stagewise, he interacts
with parents, family, society, religion, caste, school, college, profession and
other reference groups. He is influenced by all this, which plays a important
role in the development of child's thinking, values, beliefs, opinions, norms
and attitudes. Thus he imbibes values and norms of different reference groups
through their contact and by their influence.
Peculiar norms and values of every reference groups plays major part in
the development of his personality. These pecularities influence interactions of
person and during these interaction the attitudes of a person emerges. That is a
person behaves according to his values, beliefs and attitudes.
People belonging to different culture, religion and caste have positive
and negative attitudes based on their own value and attitudes. These attitudes
are liable to change in this ever changing society. Many other things connected
with routin life influence a person's behaviour. For example marriage system,
attitudes towards male child, women's education, professional role of women,
parent-child relations, child-crimes, drug abuse etc. It is every important to
study all these factors with psycho-social perspective.
There has been an explosion of knowledge and information over last few
decades. It has tremendouly influenced people's standards of living and their
values. A change has come over in the attitude and lifestyle of people belonging
to rural, urban, lower, middle or higher class of society. People are now being
familiar with the ill effects of the use and addiction of drugs. As a result
people's attitude towards drug taking behaviour has changed. Professional,
social and psychological views are implied to the study of the attitudes of durg
addiction over last few years.

2
 People belonging to a particular region, caste, peer groups or refemce
group seem to have positive attitude towards drug addiction whereas people
belonging to some other groups have negative attitude towards drug addiction.
That region, caste, religion, society or reference group which accords sanction
to the addiction of drug also developes positive attitude towards the same
amongst its own members. Whereas the members of the other groups don't
accept drug addiction in those groups developes negative attitude towards
drug addiction.
As has been said above, most of the behaviour of a person is in keeping
with his attitudes. A study ofa person's attitude is basic for the understanding
of his behaviour. A person having positive attitude towards drug addiction can
sometimes be harmful for society, country or his own self. Attempts should be
made to change his attitude by understanding the direction and intencity of his
attitude.
The aim of the present investigation is to study attitude towards drug
addiction of people belonging to various age groups, caste and different are a.

2. What is drug:
A drug is usually define as any substance that can affect the structure or
functioning of your body. Actually, that definition doesn't mean very much
because almost any chemical will have some kind of effect on us if we take a
large enough does, or take it the wrong way.
A more useful definition is "A drug is any chemical that when taken in
relative small amounts significant increase or decreases cellular activities some
where in your body.
When any substance naturally occurring or pharmaceutically derived is
used primarily to bring about may change physiological, psychological or
biochemical as known as drug.
The term 'drug' is defined by who (1969) as any substance that when
taken in to the living organism may modify one or more its functions.
The term 'drug dependence' is used to refer to "the psychic and
sometimes, physical conditions too, resulting from the interaction of a living

3
organism and a drug charaterised by behavioural and other responses that
always included a compulsion to take the drugs on a continuous or periodic
basis on order to experience its psychic effects and sometimes to avoid the
discomfort of its absence". "A drug, in medical terms", explains Mohan (1980),
"is a substance which when taken in a living organism can modify one or more
of its functions. And a drug is abused when it is taken against medical judgement."
By this definition anything from cigarettes and alcohol to heroin and LSD is a
drug. Tobacco and alcohol are the most abused in India (Mohan, The Hindu,
24th Aug. 1980).

3. Drug addiction:
W.H.O. defines that drug addiction is a stage of perisodic and chronic
intoxication detrimental to the individual and to society, produced by the
repeated consumption of drug (natural of synthetic). Its characteristics include:
I. An overpowering desire, a need (compulsion) to continue taking drugs and
to obtain it by any mean
2. A tendency to increase the dose.
3. A psychic (psychological) and sometimes a physical dependence on the
effect of the drugs.
From the above definition it is evident that physiological and psychological
need of the drug is inherent in drug addiction. The need is so over-whelming
that the craving for the addiction, forcing the individual to acquire it by any
means.
Thus there are two basic strategies in dealing with the problem of
addiction. One is legal and the other is therapeutic. The legal view is chiefly
concerned with the effects of the drugs that are regarded detrimental to the
individual and the society. Drugs are therefore, labelled as illicit items and the
user becomes an offender in the eyes of the law and is subjected to prosecution
and penalisation. Both the illicitness and the punitive patterns maintain public
condemnation of the users. Further, the advocates of the legal or punitive
approach argue that crime committed by addicts are a direct result of the drug
habit.

4
 The contenders of this view maintain that drug use leads to a criminal
way of life. A Chicago study concludes that' Almost without exception
addicts resort to theft to obtain money for the purchase of drugs. The compulsion
of addiction itself coupled with the (astronomically) high cost of drugs lead the
addict inescapably to crime. For the addict there is very simply no alternative.
In the another the study carried out by Pescor in 1943, it was found that
of the 1,036 patients at Lexcington studied by him, 75.3% had no history of
delinquency prior to addiction.
The underlying notion is that most addicts become delinquents or criminals
after the onset of their addiction.
The therapeutic approach on the other hand defines the user as
pathological. Addiction is regarded as a disease for which the solution lies in
treatment and not in punishment. According to e Villiam G. Somerville 'Drug
addiction is a disease a pathological condition just as much as the psycho-neurosis
of any of the various toxic states. This approach softens the condemnation of
the user since the behaviour is a form of illness and the users cannot be held
responsible for it.
These two strategies vis: legal and therapeutic involve people from different
disciplines or fields for gathering information, understanding and explaining the
dynamics of drug addiction and preventing the occurrence or recurrence of
drug use. The legal approach fixes attention on legislators, police, judges and
lawyers. The therapeutic approach places responsibility on physicians,
pharmacology's, psychologist, sociologist and educators.

4. History of drug addicts:

The earliest reference to the use of any intoxicating drug in India is found
in the Rig veda, which dates back to around 2,000 B.C. The intoxicating drug,
identified as soma was taken during ceremonial occasions. The soma or homa
plant (Sarcostemma) was importaed to India by the Mongolian tarter races.
There is also reference in ancient Tamil classics of kal, as intoxicating drink
which is taken even today. Fagla, a kind of rice beer mentioned in 'Susruta'
and khola. In the Ramayana and Mahabharat there references to Madhu, another

5
intoxicating drink. In ancient India, the consumption of alcohol though permitted
forreligious and medical purposes, was forbidden for those belonging to higher
castes and women. During the Moghul period, under Babar's region consumption
of alcohol was widely prevent. However, fearing defeat in battles, Barbary
prohibited the drinking of alcohol in his army and court. He himselfkept strictly
away from alcohol.
With the advent of Buddhism in 400 B.C. the use of intoxicating de
linked from the ceremonial and religious rites. During Ashok's rule drinking
was diminished to such a proportion that if was almost uprooted. Alauddin
Khilji who imposed total prohibition in his capital, most of the other took
alcoholic drinks in moderation. The use of intoxicants spared under the Moghal
rule, mainly because if was used by the kings and the example selfby the kings
was followed by the court. Fortunately the prevalence was restricted to the
richer classes and amongst the masses of people if was most common enough
to elicit comment. During the British rule, the Government looked upon alcohol.
Opium, and narcotics as an important source of revenue. The use of these
substances spread rapidly and was extended to the working class. Industrial
workers on account of long hour of hard work and bad living conditions
resorted to the use of intoxicants to drown their miseries. The policy of containing
with high excise revenue influenced the subsequent legislation which was
enacted to control the use of alcohol and other drugs. Although in 1899 in
order to check the widespread use, the Government imposed heavy taxation
on the manufacture and sale ofthese substances and also restricted the number
of shops, yet it resulted in increased revenue and there was no subsequent
decrease in the consumption. This is evident from the report of the Indian
excise committee of 1905-06 which concluded that consumption his increased
largely everywhere. The following statement shows the percentage of increase
in the consumption of alcohol in the decade 1902-1912.
Bombay 51%
Sindhu 35%
Madras 86%

6
 Punjab 81%
United Provinces 20%
Central Provinces 300%
Used as medicine and only in a restricted was as an intoxicant. We therefore
see that no attempt was made at any time to evaluate the extent of misuse of
these substances. Where as during the British rule when its use was extended
to the working class it became a problem of concern for social reformers.
Attempts were made to determine the extend of use alcohol. Early researchers
related the problem of prevalence with the availability of alcohol rather than
considering inform a psycho-social point of view. The prevalent view was
regard availability as the causative factor or the root cause of alcohol abuse
where as the psychological, social, motivational and the attitudinal aspects were
not taken in to consideration, i.e., the important question of why some people
use alcohol and become addicted while others under similar circumstances do
not was completely neglected. In the earliest studies we find estimates based
on consumption statistics or the amount to excise revenue collected.
The drugs of use or abuse in those days were opium and alcohol and
preparation of the hemp plant. In the modem times especially after the world
was II quite a large number of new and dangerous drugs have come into use.
Besides Alcohol synthetic equivalents of opium, psychedelics, hallucinogens
and psychotropics are in use in not only the western countries but also in India
and other developing countries. The problem of alcohol abuse has not become
a world wide phenomena. As in India and other Asian countries we find the use
alcohol in U.S.A. and other developed western countries since the ancient
times. According to Richard H. Blum & associates (1969) there is long history
to the use of various mood altering substances alcohol, marijuana, opium heroin
and other substances, which induce the alteration of the mind, have appeared in
many cultures through out recorded history. Although Alcohol is probably the
oldest most wide spread and the most frequently used substance, others are by
no means recent in their use.

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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

5. Various types of drugs and it's effects:

There are physical, psychological, economic, and social consequences
of drugs. Knowledge Awareness of these consequences affects attitudes towards
drug addiction. Some myths about drugs is also important factor to developed
attitudes towards drug addiction.
5.1 Alcohol:
Alcohol is a depressant drug which affects the central nervous system
immediately. The initial effect, therefore is stimulating because tensions and
tendency to inhibit feelings and actions are reduced. The person may experience
feelings of relaxation and consumed motor coordination, balance, vision and
speech are affected. They also affect complex thought processes and the
perceptions of cold and pain.
The physiological damages due to alcoholism include damages to the
liver and endocrine glands, heart failure, hyper tension and capillary hemorrhages.
There is also the possibility of brain damage. It is found that if alcohol is
abruptly removed from an alcoholic patient, he becomes frightened, depressed,
weak restless, and finds is difficult to sleep. There are tremors of the small
musculature of the fingers, face, lips and tongue. There is also a rise in the
blood pressure One such disease caused by a sudden drop of alcohol level in
the blood following continuous drinking is delirium tremens which is an alcoholic
psychotic disorder.
5.2 Barbiturates and TranquiIIizers :
Barbiturates are taken mainly for relaxation and sleep. Today there are as
many as fifty derivations with some short acting drugs used mainly for sedation
and sleep which were found to be addictive. Excessive use of Barbiturate
produces undesirable side effects like sluggishness, slow speech impaired
comprehension. Excessive use of Barbiturates causes brain damage and
deterioration of personality.
Tranquilizers are derived from several chemical groups. Over use of
tranquilizers is common. There are frequently prescribed to reduce anxiety,
and perhaps half a million Americans use them for non-medical purposes. As
with Barbiturates. the body develops a tolerance to marry tranquilizers. Physical
8
and psychological dependence and serious withdrawal symptoms may occur.
Apparently un aware that they are addictive or that they can cause death.
5.3 Amphetamines:
This drug was prescribed by physicians to control mild depression and
appetite. This drugs is also used to control hyperactivity in children. The other
derivatives of amphetamines are Dexedrine and mothering which produce similar
effects as Benzedrine. These drugs act on the sympathetic nervous system to
heighten wakefulness and inhibit intestinal functions. Moderate amphetamine
use results in increased alertness and elevation of mood. Psycho-Motor
performance improved temporally but the improvement may be followed by a
compensatory rebound or letdown in which the user feels fatigued less alert
and some what depressed.
High doses of amphetamines have significant effects on the central nervous
system and the cardiovascular system. They lead to nervousness, headache,
dizziness, agitation, apprehension, confusion, palpitations and elevated blood
pressure. Users become malnourished, exhausted, careless and in different to
normal responsibilities. Their thinking is often characterized by a paranoia that
may develop into a full-blown psychosis accompanied by hallucinations.
Withdrawal symptoms, ifthey occur are mild compared with those that often
accompany cessation of opium use, they also differ qualitatively. Many were
inject it in to a vein to obtain more intense effects. This high dose, long term
use of amphetamines is dangerous and self-destructive.
5.4 Cannabis and Cocaine:
Erythrotylum coco is a plant that contains an alkaloid cocaine, like the
opiates it can be ingested by sniffing, swallowing or injecting. It precipitates a
euphoric state for 4-6 hours duration, with peace and contentment. .This blissful
state may be preceded by headaches, dizyiness and rest lessens. When chronically
abused, acute psychotic symptoms, similar to schizophrenic develop.
Cocaine is absorbed from the mucous members and subcutaneous tissue,
Cocaine acts on the central nervous system, stimulating the cerebrum, cerebellum
and the spinal cord. Stimulation is followed by depression in these organs. It
. '1lso cause the paralysis of peripheral nerve endings. In acute cause the person
9
become talkative, restless and excited. The individual may develop delinum,
mania, vertigo numbness, tingling, insomnia, emaciation and other disturbances
of nutrition, anorexia, importance, perforation of the nasal septum.
Cannabis India or the Indian hemp provides ganja, bhang and hashish from
delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol, an active isomer ofdelta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which
is the main chemical constituent on cannabis Hashish or charas is the resin of
the plant and is also known as "dope" or 'shit'. Cannabis is absorbed from the
digestive and respiratory tract as a vapour or smoke. In acute cases dryness of
the month and throat is observed. Anxiety is a noticeable feature. The imagination
is stimulated uncontrollable laughter, illusion and hallucinations are common
features. Psychic effects such as euphoria, exaltation, automation, panic state,
delirium mental confusion, psychoses may occur.
The long abuse of Ganja or charas may lead to mental derangement,
behaviour problems, crime and insanity. The sense of time and space is
disturbed and sense ofjudgment impaired. There is an increased acuity of pain
is dulled, pupils are slightly dilated and in some instances, aphrodisiac sensations
are experienced.
Bhang habituates are more peevish and hypochondriac while emotional
character and judgment are affected more in the case of ganja and charas smoking.
5.5 Nicotine and Smoking:
Tobacco also has addictive qualities. It is now conclusively proved that
cigarette smoking is dangerous to one's health and the government of India
have compelled the manufacturers of cigarettes to print on cigarette packets a
statutory warning to this effect. Tobacco is used in different way.
Smoking is casually related to lung cancer. Cigarette smoking is associated
with an increase in overall mortality and morbidity and leads to a substation
excess of death in those people who smoke. The three main effects which
smoking has on the body are, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
The rate of bronchitis caused mortality is about is times higher among the
heavy smokers, so is about the case of ischamic heart diseases. Researches on
gastro-intestinal diseases reveals disquieting information: the evidence of gastro-
duodenal ulcer is about twice in smoker as in non smokers. A few studies
10
conducted in India also indicate the close relationship between tobacco smoking
and carcinoma. (Bedi, 1992)
A part from the effects on the physique smoking has something to do
with the psyche as well. Research shows that smokers, as compared with
non-smokers face to many problems of adjustment between themselves and
the world around them. Very often smokers unduly suffer from feelings of gait,
insecurity and rejection. Unawareness they are often tense and neurotic. Their
anxiety level tends to correspond with their in take of nicotine. Mostly extrovert,
they drink and smoke more, making more expansive movements and generally
behave as it they were in fact suffering from stimulus hunger. Economic loses
are also produced by it.
5.6 Opioids :
Opium is obtained through unripe fruit of the plant palaver somniferum
(Poppy plant) which is widely cultivated in north India. The immediate effect of
the drug an euphoric, Spam of sixty seconds or so, followed by a 'high'
during which the addict is typically lethargic, and withdrawn. bodily needs are
diminished and pleasant feeling of relaxation, euphoria and reverie tend to
dominate. These effects last 4 to 6 hours and are followed by a negative phase
which produces a desire for more of the drug. The initial effects include a
running nose tearing eyes. Perspiration restlessness and increased respiratory rate.
After 40 hours the symptoms become more severe with vasomotor disturbances,
vomiting, diarrheic, abdominal cramp pain in the back and extremities, severe
headache, tremors and insomnia. Occasionally, hallucinations, delusions and
manic actively may also occur. Cardiovascular collapse may cause death. Opium
is eaten as well as smoked.
In long standing habits, person looks dull, vacant look, sad expression,
impaired memory and there is slow cerebration. Besides these individuals show
need of self quarrelsome. They possess weak morals and show lack of sense
of responsibility.
5.7. LSD and PCP:
LSD Derived from the ergot fungus that grows on rye grass, LSD become
recognized for its psychoactive properties in the 1940s. LSD is one of the
11
most powerful known hallucinogens. A tiny amount can produced profound
distortions of sensations, feelings time and thought. Some users describe an
LSD "trip" as spiritual, mind expanding, and a source of ecstasy. Some claim
that the drug adds to their creativity, but this assertion is not supported by
researches. Others have painful, frightening experiences in which they may feel
that they have lost control, that their body is disintegrating or that they have
died. Having a "good trip" one time is no guarantee that the next LSD experience
will not tum in to a nightmare.
Despite some early claims that the drug produces chromosomal damage,
the evidence is not convincing. Nor has other long-term damage been linked to
its use.
5.8. PCP:
Phencyclidine hydrochloride, PCP, or "angel dust", has became more
popular in recent years. People tale PCP because it sometime produces
euphoria, heightened awareness, relaxation and occasionally a sense of
invincibility. However it is also produces many dangerous effects, including
loss of contact with reality, memory distortions, severe depression, anxiety and
paranoia and the unpredictable unleashing of aggressive, violent behaviour.
Disrupted thought processes, mood disturbances and aggression may persist
for weeks after a single dose of the drug and convulsions or respiratory failure
that can cause death. PCP is not physiologically addictive but there is evidence
that users may become psychologically dependent on it.
5.9 Marijuana:
Marijuana is the dried leaves and stems of hemp plant, also called cannabis
saliva. It has intoxicating effects. But this depends upon the quantity of dose.
The major active chemical in marijuana is tetra-hydro cannabinol (THC). Hashish
is produced by drying the resin of the marijuana plant. It is much stringer than
marijuana large doses of marijuana have been reported to produce emotional
changes, dulling of attention, fragmented thought, impaired memory and in rare
cases, a feeling of enhanced in sight. Very heavy dose may induce hallucinations.
The long-term use of marijuana is considered to lead to criminal behaviour.
This assumption is based on earlier studies which found more number of
12
marijuana users among criminals. But recent studies shown that marijuana inhibits
violent and aggressive behaviour. It has also been reported that marijuana users
generally do not take to the use of heroin or other drugs as is commonly
believed. There may be a few cases who use both these drugs. But this is not
generally true. The third belief that marijuana cases psychoses, has also not
been confirmed. In a few cases where psychoses was precipitated it was found
that there was a history of psychiatric illness.

6. Some myths about drugs:

Awareness or and knowledge about consequences of drug addiction
may create negative attitudes towards drug addiction but some myths about
drug may create positive attitudes towards drug addiction.
• Sex becomes more exciting after several drinks. However, since alcohol is a
depressant rather than a stimulant of the central nervous system a drinker
may find it more difficult to perform sexually even ifhe or she feel less in
habited. there is some suggestive evidence thought that alcohol enhance "frigid"
women's sexual enjoyment. Possibly by decreasing their in habitations.
• Cigarette smoking has become part of the life-style of achievement, oriented
people who feel that its benefits far outweigh the physical dangers. Smokers
also believe that smoking is helpful to reduce tension ..
• There is a belief that the use marijuana enhances creativity. Most investigators,
however, have found that there is no truth in this belief. It certainly induces
fantasies which are confused for creativity. There are claims that marijuana
increases insights in to one's self. But these reasons perhaps many of those
who use a marijuana also show an interest in meditation. But it is yet to be
proved.
• Some claim that the drug adds to their creativity, but this assertion is not
supported by research.

7. Present trends in using drugs:

New worlds trends have, lately, been noticed. Recently cannabis smokers
organized themselves into an "Alliance for Reform" in a conference held in
Amsterdam which was attended by 250 delegates from 20 countries. This was

13
a strange conglomeral ofmarijuana users, addicts and the so-called spiritualists
and mystics. We have, at least in the cities and among the young, been witnessing
strong tendency to follow the west, First, we copy the west thanks to the
media-Deluge; the movie and a veritable flood of books and pornographic and
perverse magazines which ponder to the lower senses. These follow; a gradual
degradation of the physical and moral health ofthe community. Then, there is a
lot of beating of the breasts and lamentation, at least among intellectuals. Finally,
we again look to the west for remedial action! In the case of drugs, at any rate.
There is still time to ward off the tidal wave of western type of problem. However
we owe it to the U.N. for the initiatives.
There is the 1981 UN convention on Narcotic Drugs. This binds all
governments to prohibit the public production, distribution and sale of marijuana.
This has produced some positive gain: Nepal followed by Burma launched a
programme for the eradication of poppy-opium.
The Indian experience with poppy plant is, of course, ancient. During
the British Raj cannabis was a fact oflife. The massive eight volumes "Reports
of the Hemp Drug Commission" of 1894 concluded significantly:
"The prohibition of ganja is in interference with liberty which the
Government ofIndia has not justified in taking."
From 1894 to 1950 the year we adopted the constitution, we have come
a long way. Article 47 of the constitution ofIndia directs the state to bring
about prohibition of alcoholic drinks and drugs which are injurious and harmful
to health of the community.
The directive principle needs to be backed and buttressed by a series of
measures: legislative, financial and educational. This is an uphill task requiring
co-coordinated and sustained efforts of all agencies, Governmental, professional,
medical, educationalist, voluntary, indeed the community as a whole. Above
all, it calls for will and determination.
In the U.S.A. despite a massive mobilisation of resources, a clandestine
cannabis market estimated to be worth & 44 billion has been operating with
untold cost to the people in terms of health of the individual and happiness of
the family. In the U.K., a B.B.C. survey a few years ago, found that 39 per cent
14
of a sample of British people between the ages of 17 and 34 claimed to have
used cannabis. Whatever the size of the market, no one is in any doubt that the
demand for cannabis in the west growing rapidly.
The essence of an ant drug policy is, therefore recognise with
economic development. There are no simple ways of converting all "would
be" addicts. But there are lost of ways of reducing the case with which drugs
can be produced, increasing awareness about the evils of addiction, limiting
opportunities to slowly slide into addiction and increasing the deterrence in law
and its implementation.
7.1 Media:
The power of the press and other mass media has been a subject of
perennial fascination. For purposes of social changes, mass has been a powerful
ally. You should see that this relationship is encouraged and strengthened by
opening more windows on the addictions problems. Advertising is another
dimension: while, in case of alcohol, there is a legal bar to advertising, tobacco
enjoys a total holiday. The glamorous presentation often with star support has
pushed the "statutory warning," concerning use of tobacco to inconspicuous
comers. There is every effort on the part of the advertisers, to so composed
the text as to pour scorn and disdain on the "statutory warning."
While on the subject of tobacco, it is necessary to mention that while
W.H.O. has pursued the problem with vigour, Departments of Health have
done precious little to discourage smoking. One can only mention, but not
elaborate, the serious cancer hazard from tobacco chewing.
Next about alcohol: the less said the better. Look only to the economics.
We have the estimates arrived at by the Seventh Finance Commission: that the
....
states derive an average of500crores of Rupees, as excise revenue, on alcoholic
beverages. Simple arithmetic will show that the coat to consumers, in terms of
money (and not in terms of health) alone would be in the neighborhood of
Rs. 1500 cores. Halfthat amount would ensure nutrition and health of all children
under five some 10 cores of them.

15
 The story of the Green Revolution makes all Indians, especially farmers,
feel proud. It acquires a special significance in the context of the current F.A.O.
conference that India is hosting. But studies conducted by the Punjab Agricultural
University (the University that has been the Nursery of Green Revolution) have
revealed that prosperity in agriculture has contributed more to the liquor than to
family health, the Punjab's took 30% more liquor in 1978-79 than in the previous
year. Government earnings have grown despite reduction in the volume ofbottled
liquor issued from Bonded warehouses. It is strange that the excise departments
would be anxious to undo what the Health Departments promote. One has to
hope they would sit up and take notice to stem the trend- ifnot to reverse it.
One would like to see a national drug agency being set up t guide law
enforcement as well as social action. While there is no cause for hysterics in the
matter of drug addiction we have a long way to go and a national drug agency
alone can chart out the course of action.
In conclusion, this must address itself to two or three crucial questions:
Firstly, what are the critical issues in drug addiction: social, psychological,
medical, economic and others, recently, how can the human institutional
resources be mobilised, and thirdly: to develop a programme of action as a
part ofa synchoonised but multi-sect oral strategy.
8. Various models of drug use:
There are four major points of view with regard to drug use and its three
interacting components (substance, user, context): the traditional moral-legal,
the medical or public health, the psycho-social and the social-cultural. Each
varies in its assumptions about drugs, about people about social and cultural
context, in term of gross over-simplification, and recognising that there are
many variations in each, these views can be described as examples of the
dicersity of assumptions made about drugs, about people and baout societies.
Each of these assumptions has implications for social action, education,
prevention, treatment and legislation and policy formulation. There has been
wide- spread belief that drug, especially those producing intoxication, hypnotic
state, elation and the like, often lead to habituation and drug dependence. At the
first instance or at the initial stage a man may become aware of a drug through
16
 --------------------------------------

medical prescription of such agents who themselves have been addicts of one
or the other varieties of drug. It is only a casual observation that not all persons
are susceptible to habituation or to addiction, nor they have a tendency to take
drugs not by a way of medical intervention but for something else. This leads to
an assumption that there are some predisposing factors present in the environment
or in the personality of the person which lead to drug abuse.
8.1. The Moral-Legal Model:
The traditional moral-legal approach has placed major importance on the
drug. Drugs are classified as safe or dangerous, where safe means not designated
as dangerous or not social or legally prescribed. The primary goal comes to
consist of keeping specific drugs away from people. Drugs are assumed to be
the active agent, people to be the uniformed, unwilling or deviant victims who
must be protected via legal controls on cultivation, processing of the
substance, even in some instance, on possession of the paraphernalia or
instruments for using. The principal deterrents are considered to be control of
availability of drugs, increase in cost of drugs, punishment or threat of punishment,
and warnings of great physical, psychological and social harm. Great emphasis
is placed on the dengerous effects of drugs in an efforts to deter use, and
educational programme based on these assumptions often consist primarily of
dissemination of information about the dangers of specific drugs causing concern
and about their legal status and the penalties attached to sale, used and possession.
Just as drugs are dichotomized as legal or illegal, individuals tend to be
dichotomized as users and non-users without regarding to the kind of drug
used or pattern of use. Although distinctions are sometimes made between
'soft' drugs and 'hard' drugs, both drugs and individuals tend to be dichotomized
on the basis oflegal or illegal, medical or non-medical.
8.2. The disease or public-health model:
In the public-health model or approach has been increasingly considered
as an alternative to the moral-legal model, drug, individual and context are
translated into agent, host and context following the infectious disease model.
Although differences between these two models may seem subtle, they have an
important influence on the nature of recommended action. An agent is by
17
definition, active, and in this model the drug as agent assumes, as in the previous
model, the major role in the triad.
The drugs causing concern are defined as dependence-producing rather
than simply dangerous as in the moral-legal model, but the two models share a
major emphasis on drug or substance as the active agent. A major difference
between the two approach is that the public health view does not distinguish
between legal and iIIegal and, therefore, often includes alcohol, nicotine, and
caffeine as dependence-producing, but distinguishes them from other dependence-
producing drugs on the basis of the contextual (social) variables of social
acceptability and widespread availability and use. Decrease in social acceptability
and increase in cost of dependence-producing substances thus become a means
for possible reduction in use as well a control of availability.
The individual or host is viewed as vulnerable or not vulnerable, as
infected and infectious. Since the identification of vulnerable individuals is far
from perfect, there are various attempts to 'vaccinate' by measures including
prevention-oriented educational programmes that tend to rely on information
about the risks involved in initiating use of designated substances and the personal
and social harm caused by becoming dependent on these substances.
Although those adherents to the public-health model who are most
experienced in dealing with drug use and drug users recognize inadequacies
and seem to be moving in the direction of a psycho-social model, this model
still represents their basic concept of the nature and relative importance of
drug, of individual, and of context, and it determines to a major extend the
manner in which they respond to problems associated drug use. Drug users are
to be treated and cured as a medical problem. Drug use is to be prevented as a
public-health problem just as any infectious disease.
8.3. The Psycho-Social Model :
The psycho-social model tends to put major emphasis on the individuals
as the active agent in the drug-individual context formulation. Drug use and
drug user rather than pharmacological substances are the complex, dynamic
factor and the major point for intervention. This model tends to be concerned
with the meaning and function of drug use to the individual, with drug use as
18
 ----------------------

behaviour that, like other behaviour, would not persist unless it served some
function for the individual. rt tends to make distinctions among different amounts,
frequencies, and patterns of drug use, the different function that drug use may
serve, the differential effects of different patterns of drug use in different
individuals. It is concerned with context to terms of the influence of the perceived
attitudes and behaviour of other persons individually or in social groups such
as families, peer groups and communities. Context is seen as a contributor to
both use and the problems associated with use via interpersonal definition of,
and response to, drug use and drug users. Because of its emphasis on
individuals and their behaviour, and on the role of social factors, this model
often recommends non-drug-specific responses to drug use which tum out to
be equally applicable to other destructive or deviant behaviours.
8.4. The Social-cultural Model :
Those who view drug use and the problems associated with drug use
from the socio-cultural point of view tend to emphasise and recognize complexity
and variation in the context factor of drug-individual context. Specific drugs
gain their meaning and significance, not so much from their pharmacological
properties, but from the way in which a given society defines and responds to
their use and their users. Socially prescribed drug use is seen primarily as
deviant behaviour to be viewed and treated along with other deviant or, if
excessive, destructive behaviours. As in all deviant behaviours, harm may come
to the individual either from the behaviour itself or from his society's response
to that behaviour. This point of view recognises that such behaviour will of
necessity very from culture, from subculture to subculture. It goes behind the
social and psychological factors emphasised in the psycho-social model to
stress what is present in socio-economic and environmental conditions as the
reasons for psychological stress and therefore, as the basic, if not essential,
locus of intervention. Poverty, poor housing, discrimination, lack of opportunity,
industrialisation, urbanization are seen as the breeding ground of the more
personal factors that the psycho-social model emphasizes - factors such as
broken homes, lack of parental guidance, large, impersonal and work institutions
and breakdown in social controls. This view also recognizes that, despite the
19
tendency to see undesirable behaviour always as the result ofundeirableaspects
of the social system, much that is disapproved of is initially linked with things
that are approved of and valued. Conformity, competition, achievement, productivity
may be two-edged swords.
Each of these models represents a vantage point from which to view drug
use and the phenomena associated with it and leads to different recommendations
and actions designed to modify use. Each represents a lens through which to
view drug, man, society and the interaction among them, the number and kinds
of discriminations made within each factor, the nature of the response and the
relative ability of various institutions and professions to intervene most effectively.
If the challenge is to keep drugs away from man, laws and law enforcement
will be given a major role; ifit is to keep man away from drugs, the responsibility
will be that of those skilled in the behavioural science; if it is to create an
environment in which the needs that drug use servers are better served by
behaviour involving less risk, less potential for harm'to the individual and the
society, every institution and the individuals who have roles in each institution
have a role to play.
Four important new trends are developing in the definition of, and
response to, socially disapproved and destructive drug use. These have occurred
primarily in those countries and parts of countries that have struggled longest
and hardest to modify unacceptable drug use and only after other approaches
have been tried. The first of these new tends to define the problem in psycho-social
terms rather than pharmacological, legal or medical terms, to place increasing
emphasis on drug use as behaviour. The second is, often reluctantly, to adopt
as a primary goal not the prevention of use but the reduction of the problems
associated with destructive drug use. The third is an increasing though not
dramatic willingness to put socially disapproved drug use by youth in the context
of use of all drugs, legal and illegal, by persons of all ages. The fourth, closely
associated with the third, is a willingness to include alcohol as a drug and to
consider the implications of its use both by adults and by youth.
Indications of these trends are abundant in the conclusions and
recommendations of a number ofrecent international meeting. That these meetings
20
have included among their participants and as consultants an increasing number
of social and behavioural scientists, of individuals working directly with young
drug users and of youth themselves is perhaps both a recognition of these
trends on the part of the conveners and the major factor influencing the
recommendations that resulted. At the very least they suggest a willingness to
entertain the possibility that traditional responses by traditional institutions have
been less than effectiveness.

9. Factors affecting to drug addicts:

9.1. Sex and Age:
Taking drugs is a characteristically male activity. Compared with women,
men are not only more likely to take drugs, but also consume more when they
take drugs. Not surprisingly, men are far more likely to become drug addicts; it
has been estimated that men are at least times more likely than women to become
drug users. But this sex difference has been narrowing over the years, as women
have been achieving more equality in various aspects oflife.
Men are more prone drugs addicts than are women-current estimates suggests
that 9 percent of men suffer from drug use, compared with 1.5 percent of
women. (L.N.Robin, Helzer, Przyback, et, a!., 1988) and there are marked
differences between male and female drug addicts. Women usually being drug
addicts later in their lives, experience their first intoxication later, develop drug
taking behaviour later; and come to facilities with shorter histories of drug
taking problems than do men. Women are more likely than men to cite a stressful
event as precipitating the problem drug using spouse or lover.
Female drug addicts are much likely than male drug addicts to drug
taking behaviour alone, but when women take drug with someone else it is
likely to be someone close to them. Conversely, men are more likely than women
to take drug in public place and with strangers.
A longitudinal study by Ruth, Engs and David Hanson shown that since
the mid 1970's there has been significant increase in taking drugs as well as
drug addiction problem among college women while there has been no such
increase among college man. Engs and Hanson attribute this finding to the women

21
greater careers, their stronger desire for achieving sexual equality by behaving
like' one of the boys,' and declining social stigma about women getting drunk.
Nevertheless, men still drunk more than women. (Reuter, 1983)
Women have less body fluid per pound of body weight. Therefore if 150
pound women and 150 pound man have a higher blood alcohol level than he
and consequently will be more intoxicated.
The fact that drug taking is a characteristically male activity may reflect
the drinkers concern with their masculinity. Ifthis is the case we should expect
young men to take drug more then older men, as young men are apparently
more concerned with their masculinity - a tendency often reinforced by the
peer pressure towards being able to 'drug addicts like a man'. Indeed many
studies have shown such concoction between age and drug taking behaviour.
National surveys taken in 1972 and 1982 revealed the same result: prevalence
rate of drug using is higher among young men - aged 18-25- than older men-
age 26 and above. (Judith D .. Miller, 1993)
Never married men, who are presumable as conccred about their
masculinity as the younger men, in general have also been found to drink more
than married man. (Patricia A.1lunter, Roscann 1lannon and David Marchi, 1982)
The highest rates of alcohol related problems have been found among;
men:separated, signle and divorced persons; persons with no religious affiliation;
persons who are beer drinkers as compared those who are mostly hard liquor
or wine drinkers; persons who were more likely to say; "Drunkness is usually
not a sign of social irresponasibility" and "Drunkness is usually a sign of just
having fun."
The lowest rates alcohol related problems have been found among;
Women: persons over 50, widowed and married persons, Persons of Jewish
religious affiliation. Residents of rural areas, Residents of the south, persons
with post grad ute education, person who are mostly "wine drinkers." (Alcohol
and Health, p. 19)
Woem are obviously less concerned with masculinity, and so the age
difference in alcohol consumption among women is not as great as that among
men. But younger women are still significantly prone to drink more than do
22
 Bhavnagar Uriversity
Librory.
BHA\NP..G~R.

older women. Thus the age factor may have its own influence on drinking.
9.2. Ethnic Background:
There are wide variations in drinking habits among different ethnic groups.
(Adler and Kandle, 1982) Some groups such as Italian-American and Jews,
exhibit drinking habits that are well integrated in to their culture. The vast majority
drink, but these groups have the lowest rates of alcoholism of any other groups
in the united states, primarily because of the patterns of their drinking. Italian-
American have strong sanctions against drunkness, and the whole family usually
drinks wine with meals. As a consequence they have few alcohol related problems,
although second and later generations being to show higher rates of heavy
drinking.
In constrct to these patterns, Irish-American have more problem drinkers
than do other Americans ofthe same social class. They other deliberately seek
to get drunk, often drink distilled spirits rather than wine and often take five or
six drinks on a single occasion. Consequently they have high rates of alcoholism
and their adolescents follow their example.
9.3. The Modles :
Drinking patterns among adolescents generally follow the adult modles
in their communities. (Glynn, 1981) Parents who dribk or who sanction drinking
are more likely to have adolescent who drink; parents who do not drink or who
disapprove of drinking are more likely to have youths, who do not parents who
are modest to heavy drinkers are more likely to have adolescents who are
moderates to heavy drinkers. (Barnes, Farrell and Cairns, 1986) Farther more,
chronic alcoholism is more likely to run in families. About one third of any
sample of alcoholism will have had at least one parents who was an alcoholic.
(Cotton, 1979) Children who are exposed to drinking their parents, however,
do not necessarily grow up to be problem drinkers. The highest rates of alcoholism
among adolescents are found in groups that are under pressure to refrain from
drinking until age 21 or in families, such as the Irish, who themselves have high
rates of alcoholism.

23
9.4. Socio-Economic Factor :
Proportionately more people of the higher socio-economic level drink,
compared to the lower levels. Yet there are more problem drinkers and alcoholics
from the lower classes. There may be two explanations for this paradoxical
finding. On e if that higher and lower status drinking use alcohol for different
purposes. Higher stat as drinkers may be likely to use alcohol as a ficilitation of
social interaction, while lower statas drinkers tend more to drink as way of
turning to solve their personal problems. This may explain why, when drinking,
lower, statas individuals drink significantly more and faster than higher stats
persons (Hunter, Hannon, and Marchi).
It is apparent a learge consumption alcohol can make the lower status
drinkers lose self-control. Whizh is tum makes it harder to solve problems.
Thus they may keepcon drinking to attempt to achieve a goal that gets progressively
harder to achivev the more they drink. Another explanation is that there may in
fact be no real diffemce in alcoholism between the higher and lower status.
Lower-status people may only appear more prone to alcoholism because they
are not as successful as higher - staus in hiding problem drinking.
9.5. Peergroup Pressure:
Youth drink also because of peer group pressure and the need for peer
indentification, sociability, and friendship. (Johnson, 1986: Sarvela and
McClendon, 1983) Drinking becomes a social custom of a particulae group;
therefore the adloescent who wants to be a part of the group drinks too.
(Fondacaro and Heller, 1983) One way of avoiding is associating with peers
who, themselves, do not drink. (Brown and Stetson, 1988) In general, fewer
percentages of blacks than whites of all ages are current drinkers. (V.S. Dept.
ofHHs, 1980). Far fewer percentages of Mexican-American college ahe females
drink than do Anglo college females, although there are few differences in the
drinking habits of Mexican-American and Anglo-American college males.
(Trofter, 1982).
9.6. Region and Residence:
Drugs consumption is the highest in the regions of the Northeast. The
middle Antlantic and Pacitic coast states; the lowest in the south and the intermediate
24
in the Midwest. The states that have higher rates of drugs use are generally
more undunized. Youths from rurals and small towns are more likely to be
abstainers than are adolescents from cities and suburbs. The largest proportions
of heavy drug users live in urban and suburban areas; the smallest of proportion
of heavy drinkers live in rural communities and small towns. (Gibbons et aI.,
1986) Sociologists generally atribute the need for drinking as well as the resulting
alsoholism to the stresses and strains of urban life or to the driftng of alcoholism-
prone people into the city.
In sum it appears that with the exception of the Italians, Jews, and chinese,
the groups that have higher proportions of drinkers also have higher proportions
of problem drinking. Mere use of alcohol, then has a good chance of developing
in to problem drinking.
9.7. Education:
The highest proportion of abstainers (62 percent) in the general population
is found among people with less than an eight-grade education. The proportion
of heaviour drinkers increase fairly steadily, from 6 percent of those with
grammer school education to 15 percent of college graduates. (Harris and
Associates, 1974)
9.8. Delinquency:
The incidence of deviant drinking amongjuvenile delinquents is decidely
higher than in the general adolescent population, suggesting that everdrinking is
bt one class of antisocial behaviour among who are maladjusted and who have
the potential for getting in to trouble (Farrow and Franch, 1986) Those who are
the heaviest drinkers are those who are also most often involved in such crimes
as shoplifting, breaking and entering and auto theft, (Dawkins and Dawkins,
1983)
9.9. Religion and Cast:
Religious and cast also determine to a large extend the use of drugs. The
use of drugs is prohibited among monmmedians and certain classes of Hindus,
lains, etc. On the other hand, use of drugs is permitted on religious grounds in
the Tantril sect of 'suktas'. The use ofpachway was considered necessary to
religious and social festivals of Santhals, Garros, Koch, Dhangaras, Tipperas
25
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

and other aboriginal tribes.

Various studies have suggeted that individuals to whom religious is
important tend to use drug less frequently, less heavily and experience fewer
problems associated with drinking."
9.10. Occupation:
But of all factors, Occupation is perhaps one of the most important. A
departure from the pursuit of agriculture weakens the traditional restrictions
against indulagence in drugs use. Complexity of town life also works in the
same direction. The conditions of employment in Indian factories and industries
make the workers feel the need for a stimulant as they day's work is done. The
presence of the floating population in a city at the time of fairs and religious
functions also tend to increase consumption of drugs.
7.11 BIiefs :
The other factors which have favoured the use of drugs are belief in their
medicinal value, as source of vitamins and digestive adjuncts and as food. All
circumstances which affect the prosperity of the people in general have a direct
influence on consumption of drugs. There has been a rise in consumption during
prosperous years and fall in bad years, reaching a minimum during the famine
years. Consumption increase after the hartvest season in punjab, and in the mill areas
on pay day's outbreaks of epidemics such as cholera and plague are accompanied
by the large increase in consumption ofliquors partly due to the belief that it is
a prophylactic and partly to overcome the fear of disease. The popularity of
alcohol in the same area may vary from time to time according to the fluctuations
in prices of different intoxicants. But the most important precipitating or economic
cause of habitual use of alcohol us related to the previous use of such beverages
in medical treatment, to self treatment for the relief of pain or to recourse to
drug during emotional stress.
9.12. Media:
There is positive correlation between heavy television viewing and alcohol
consumption. Although cause and effect cannot be inferred, it is plausible that
adolescents are taught subtly television that alcohol is good, healthy and harmless.
(Tucker, 1985) Certainly much youthful drinking is portrayed on television
26
 ~~----~- - - - - - - - -

programs. (Defoe and Breed, 1988).

10. Theories of Drug Addiction:

10.1. Physiological Theories:
It is generally held that changes effected by drugs in the psychological
condition of a drug addict become important factors in treating drug addiction.
If the person stops taking drugs, he develops withdrawal symptoms, to prevent
which he continues to take drugs. It is admitted that taking drugs itself starts
with curiosity or by accident. But once habituated to it, the body chemistry
changes and withdrawal of it affects the body chemistry, causing symptoms of
depression etc.
The above psychological theory has, however, been questioned by persons
working with drug addicts, for instance. Ausubel (1961) and Yablonsky (1967).
There are various organisations which help to rehabilitate drug addicts. Synanon,
an organisation in the USA that does community living treatment for drug
addiction does not allow withdrawal symptoms by social pressure. Drug addicts
are told that the effect of withdrawal will not be severe and that he or she will be
able to meet ordinary life situations. They are persuaded to meet responsibility
assigned to them. This organisation reports success in eliminating withdrawal
symptoms. The difficulty arises in the case of addicts who are not under the
control of organisations like the Synanon. In fact, any symptom which does
not have a relationship with the withdrawal of the drug may be imagined by the
addict as due to withdrawal, and therefore addiction may be more due to
psychological factors than psychological causes. But this does not mean
addiction has nothing to do with psychological changes. Psychological change
may be one of the contributing causes.
10.2. Psychosocial Theories :
The psychoanalytic theory attributes drug addiction to oral fixation during
the psychosexual development of an individual. Behaviourists on the other
hand speak of it as a learned behaviour. There have been several studies in the
west and also a few studies in India regarding drug addiction. The results of the
different studies are reflected in the formulation from the WHO Expert Committee

27
(1970), which indicates no single cause for drug addiction. The Expert Committee
listed the following as important reason for drug addiction:
1. It may be an underlying character disorder in which immediate gratification
is sought at the expense oflong-term adverse consequences and at the price
of immediate surrender of adult responsibilities.
2. It may be a manifestation of delinquent (deviant) behaviour in which there
us pursuit of personal pleasure in regard to social connection.
3. It may be an attempt at self-treatment by persons who suffer from either
psychic or psychical distress or who strongly believe that it has power to
prevent disease or increase sexual capacity.
4. It may be a way of getting social acceptance especially for the socially
inadequate individual.
Psychologists who have made empirical studies of drug addiction list
curiosity to achieve a sense of belonging, to express independence and hostility,
to derive pleasure, to get a thrilling or dangerous experience, to be creative and
foster a sense of ease and relaxation, as important psychological conditions.
Among physical and social conditions, it was found that drug addicts hail from
urban professional families with above average income. Among the addicts
males were found to outnumber females, and were found to come mostly from
broken homes. Addicts were also found to have fathers who took alcohol and
tobacco, and mothers who used tranquilisers. Peer group influences were also
found to be important.

11. Attitude:
The net product of the socialization process is the formation of the
social attitudes among individuals. These attitudes are reflected by the words
and deeds of an individual. In his interaction with other persons and groups, in
his dealing with the cultural products, in all these we see the influence of the
social attitudes. It is by forming the appropriate social attitudes that one becomes
a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian: a Congressman or a Socialist or a Communist;
a Capitalist or a labour leader. Nobody is born one way or the other. He becomes
one by the formation of the appropriate social attitudes. In the last 40 years,

28
considerable work has been done regarding the formation, the change and
measurement of social attitudes. Studies have been made about the way in
which groups of people incline towards the church, the school, the political
party, the economic programmes, war and such other institutions.
11.1. Definition :
Attitude has been defined in a number of different ways. Allport (1935)
defined an attitude as a "mental and neural state of readiness, organized through
experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's
response to all objects and situations with which it is related". He looked upon
attitude primarily as a set to respond in a particular way.
An attitude is an enduring system that includes a cognitive component, a
feeling component and an action tendency. Attitudes involve an emotional
component. This is why when an attitude is formed it becomes resistant to
change; it does not generally respond to new facts. An attitude involves beliefs
as well as evaluations. The upper caste man has an unfavourable attitude
towards a Harijan. The Indian had an unfavourable attitude towards the Pakistanis
or the Chinese. These attitudes involve some knowledge about the other groups
(the cognitive component), some feelings of dislike (the affective, evaluational
component) and a predisposition to avoid, attack etc. (the action ~omponent).
An attitude denotes an adjustment of the individual towards some
selected person, group or institution. In forming an attitude towards some
aspect ofthe environment an individual shows a readiness to respond. In reaction-time
experiments, it has been found that there are differences in reaction time de-
pending upon the attitude taken by the individual. It is conceived as a state of
preparation for discriminating among stimuli (sensorial attitude) or as a state of
preparation for reacting as quickly as possible upon the occurrence of a definite
stimulus (motor attitude). Thus an attitude results in a state of preparation or a
state of readiness to respond in a particular manner under particular circumstances.
An attitude determines a certain expectation; if the events are in line with these
expectations then there satisfaction. But if the events are contrary to the attitude
then there will be dissatisfaction. In this chapter, we are not dealing with attitudes
in general. Attitudes could be formed to social as weIl as non-social aspects of
29
the environment. We are now concerned only with social attitudes, that is,
attitudes formed in relation to social stimulus situations. Thus social attitudes
may be formed towards persons groups or persons ; towards the product of
human interaction. These products of human interaction may be material like
the technological devise or they may be non-material like the values or norms
ofa group.

12. Attitudes leading to conforming behaviour:

People in different cultures from definite attitudes towards what is desirable
and what is undesirable. In other words, social attitudes involve values. There
is a readiness to do or not to do certain things. For example, people indifferent
cultures have definite attitudes about what is desirable to eat and at what time
food should be taken. Thus the attitude sets a person for or against persons,
groups, things, and institutions. Thus attitudes define what is to be preferred,
expected and desired and what is desirable and what should be avoided. Thus,
in terms of its consequence, an attitude is goal-directed. Attitudes may be
referred to as sociogenic motives. Attitudes arise out of the socialization of an
individual in a group. It must be emphasised that we cannot observed attitudes.
Social attitudes can only be inferred from the speech and behaviour of individuals.
Some social psychologists refer to attitudes as "conforming behaviour". For
example, F.H.Allport )1) pointed out that distribution of individuals towards
certain typical instances gives us a "J" curve. The majority ofthe members ofa
group will reveal the particular attitude and so will be lumped together at one
end. The curve for the rest of the group will taper off towards the other end.
With the increase in the degree of division there is the decrease in the number of
cases resulting in the form of a "J" curve. An example may be given from the
dress of students in the colleges. The large majority of the students today wear
a shirt or kurta and a pyjama. Other variations in dress like wearing pants or
dhoti will be by a very small number. So if you put the type of dress along the
"X" axis and the number of people wearing the dress along the 'Y' axis and
draw the curve starting with the group which is the largest there is 'J' curve.
Similarly, if we stand near a temple and observe the reaction of the people as

30
they pass the temple on the street, we will find that a very large number of
Hindus will stop for a second and offer prayer and a very small number will just
pass by. Such conformity to social norms is based on the development of
social atti tudes.

13. Characteristics of attitude:

An attitude which determines the characteristic, or a consistent, mode of
behavour in relation to a particular aspect of the environment is an internal
factor. What are the criteria which differentiate attitudes as internal factors from
other internal factors? Sherif has given a few criteria which help not only to
differentiate attitudes as internal factors from other internal factors, but also to
learn about the characteristics of the attitudes themselves. According to Sherif
the following are the distinguishing features of attitudes (2.494).
I. Attitudes are not innate. They are formed or learnt by the individual as he
grows up in the group. Consequently, attitudes are not biogenic though they
are based on the biogenic motives, for e.g., craving for food is biogenic but
strong preference for rice or for wheat, is an attitude that is formed because
of the family in which one is brought up. If the children in the south, and in
other predominantly rice-eating parts ofIndia, have to change their attitudes
towards wheat, then wheat should be introduced right from childhood. But
it will be accepted by the children only ifthe mother and father also take it as
a part of the food. Thus unless the parents change their attitudes towards
food, children cannot change their attitudes.
2. Attitudes are more or less lasting. They are enduring. But since attitudes are
formed they are subject to change. They are not immutable. Because we
conform to attitudes we can also change the attitudes provided there are the
proper conditions. Our pervious illustration gives us an insight about the
changing of attitudes.
3. Attitudes imply a subject-object relationship. Attitudes are always formed in
relation to certain persons, groups, objects or institutions. So attitudes are
not just internal factors without any relationship with the external factors.
On the other hand, they can arise only in relation to some aspect of the
environment.
31
4. Attitudes involve individuals as well as groups. An individual may develop
an attitude of hostility towards another individual or he may look upon the
whole group to which the other individual belongs as hateful. A gang of
boys may develop hatred towards a rival gang. They may consider not only
that a particular individual in the rival gang is treacherous, but that all the
individuals in that gang are treacherous. To the Hindu Mahasabha man every
Muslin in India, Pakistan and elsewhere is hateful. Similarly to a man ofthe
Muslim League, every Hindu is hateful. To an American, not only the communist
countries like Russia and China are hateful, but even the non-aligned countries
are undesirable. Thus our social attitudes may encompass not only individuals
but also groups, small as weI! as vast. There is a process of generalistation
and consequently all the out-groups are looked upon as aggressive, dishonest
and so on. As wel1 shal1 see later on, this is a very important factor in social
behaviour.
5. Attitudes have motivational-affective properties. As we have seen already,
attitudes are learnt. How can we then distinguish attitudes from other learnt
items? According to Sherif attitudes have the motivational-affective properties.
Unlike other learnt items, an attitude is goal-directed in a positive or negative
way.
6. Attitudes are shared by the members of a group. AI! the above criteria apply
to attitudes which are social as wel1 as non-social. The distinguishing features
of the social attitudes are (a) that they are formed in relation to social situation
and (b) that they are shared by the members of the group. That social
attitudes are more or less common among the members ofa group, with the
exception of a few members who are deviant, is an essential feature. It is
this that leads to conforming behaviour of the large majority of the members
ofa group and the deviation only by a small minority. The norms and values
ofa group are internalised through the formation of attitudes.
There is another peculiar feature in the learning of attitudes as compared
with the other learnt items in an individual's behaviou. We find that the new
members of the group from attitudes through short-cut verbal dicta like proverbs
and aphorisms. Verbal formulae like proverbs induce certain attitudes by being
32
accepted. The elder or the senior members of a family present these value
judgments with an air of finality and they are accepted by the younger and
junior members of a group who are in the process of becoming members.
Thus social attitudes are formed, not on the basis of individual and personal
experiences, as much as through the acceptance of the verbal formulae. Even
when the personal experience contradicts the prevailing social attitude, the
chances are that the individual will tend to look upon the personal experiences
as an exception rather than as the truth.
In a general way, it may by stated that an attitude is a readiness to
respond to cretin situations, persons, objects or ideas in a consistent manner.
This kind of readiness is the result ofleaming and it becomes a habitual mode
of response. Thus an attitude implies on the one hand a well-defined object of
reference and on the other a variation in the degree or strength of a person's
attitude from extremely positive to extremely negative. The strength of a person's
attitude may vary all the way from extremely favorable attitude towards that
issue to extremely unfavourable attitude.
14. Measurement of Attitudes:
14.1. The scaling of test items:
An attitude involves belief or disbeliefs, acceptance rejection and faviouring
or not some aspect the environment. In order to measure attitudes, scales have
been constructed consisting of short statements dealing with several aspects of
some issue or institution under consideration. The statements involve faviourable
or unfaviourable estimations, acceptance or rejection. Consequently, the central
problem of the measurement of attitude is the scaling of test items. It is presumed
that a series of statements can be made which serve as the marks of a yardstick
for the measurement of attitudes. Each statement will represent a specified
degree of acceptance or rejection of a belief. Further these statements have to
be equally spaced throughout the entire range of attitude continuum from complete
acceptance of a beliefto its complete rejection.
Two methods of measuring attitudes may be considered briefly in this
section. Thurstone' s method of equal appearing interval and Linkert' s method
of summated ratings.
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14.2. Thurstone's method of equal appearing intervals:
The theory underlying Thurstone' s method of equal appearing intervals
is that if a person indicates the statements the accepts and rejection he can be
located at a definite position on the attitude continuum. Consequently the problem
is to select an appropriate series of statements and to determine what positions
on the attitude continuum each statement represents. In order to solve this
problem Thurstone collected a list of statements from several sources like
newspaper articles, legislature proceedings on issues, pamphlets, opinions of
colleagues etc. The important thing is that these statements should represent all
the various stand-points from complete acceptance to complete rejection. Generally
about 200-300 statements will have to be collected in order to prepare an attitude
scale according to this method. The next step is to edit these statements. Several
statements which are not very pertinent to the issue under consideration or
which are ambiguous could be eliminated. Similarly statements which are
duplicating could also be eliminated and the statements could be re-worded so
that they are more effective. It is important to see that each statement is a
reflection of opinion and not a fact. The statements should be simple, short,
complete, definite and direct so that they could be accepted or rejected. The
investigator must avoid his prejudices when he is collecting and editing these
statements. The next step is to arrange these statements from extremely
faviourable extremely unfaviourable continuum. They should also be arranged in
equal appearing intervals so that a scale resembling a footrule could be constructed.
In order to do this Thurstone followed the procedure of getting each statement
typed on a slip of paper. He got several people to serve as judges and each was
asked to sort the slips or paper in 9 to II groups. For example, if we take up
statements expressing our attitude towards prohibition or language issue we
can collect hundreds of statements of involving definite opinions all the way
from complete acceptance to complete rejection. The judges could be asked to
sort the statements in such a way tat all those which express the greatest appreciation
of prohibition are put into one pile and at the other end all those statements
expressing the strongest disapproval of prohibition could be piled up as the 9th
or II th pile, as the case may be. Then the other statements could be classified
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in between these two depending on the degree of appreciation or deprecation
of prohibition. Eachjudge in now trying to sort these statements purely on the
basis of whether the statements is faviourable or unfaviourable regarding the
issue. The judge is not thinking about his own preference now. Further they are
asked to distribute them into 9 or 11 piles so that the intervals are equal appearing,
equally spaced throughout the range ofthe attitude continuum. Thurstone used
as many as 300 judges. But studies have shown that reliable evaluation can be
obrained with about 20 or 30 judges. Ferguson used groups of25-50-75-100-
125-150-200 judges. he did not find any advantage in the increase of numbers.
After getting the judges to classify the statements into the various piles,
the next step is to find out the median value of each statement. There is the
problem whether the personal attitude of the judges will not affect their evaluation.
Thurstone assumed that when a man is asked to evaluate the statement he will
not be influenced by his own attitude towards the issue. Studies have been
made to find out ifThurstone's assumption is correct. Hinckley asked a group
of Negro students, a group of white students from the north and a group of
white students from the south to evaluate 114 statements in order to build up a
scale of attitude towards Negroes. He constructed 3 scale on the basis of the
evaluation of the 3 groups. He found that these 3 scales were identical in content. Only
one statement found not to occupy the same relative position in all the three
scales. Thus the Negroes who were involved in the problem as well as the
whites who were unfaviourable to the Negroes, and the whites who were
faviourable to the Negroes, all these three different groups have the same evaluation
for the various statements when they were asked to sit in judgment over is
statement. Other studies have given similar results. Thus it may be concluded
that the attitude of the rater does not influence him when he is evaluating the
statements to prepare an equal appearing interval scale.
Ferguson tried to find out if the evaluation of the statements by different
groups with status differences will affect the evaluation. He tried to construct
an Assistant Managerial evaluation from and he obtained judgments from a
group of Managers, Assistant Managers and Agents. It is clear that among
these three groups, the Assistant Managers are ego-involved as the statements
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relate to them directly while the Managers are a superior status group, and the
Agents are an inferior status group. But Ferguson found that all the three groups-
rated in the same way. Thus, this technique of using judges in preparing the
equal appearing interval scales is satisfactory.
Another problem with respect to this procedure of establishing the scale
value is the influence of different time periods and changing cultural tends.
Farnsworth found a high degree of correlation (97) between the evaluation of
items with respect to Peterson's scale for the measurement of attitude towards
war prepared in 1930 with the values obtained in 1940. This problem needs to
be studied in different cultures.
After determining the median value for each statement the next problem
is to select a small number of statements representing each value position along
the attitude continuum. Roughly about 20-25 items will have to be selected. All
the statements which are judged to be ambiguous or irrelevant to the continuum
are eliminated. Finally, the scaled attitude test is administered and the respondent
is asked to check those statements with which he is in agreement. He score is
the median of the scale values of the items that he has checked. Thus the
subject is required to indicate his agreement or disagreement with each statement.
Before closing this section, we may given some illustrations of the way in
which Thurstone's scale to measure the attitude towards Church works. It was
found that the mean value for Catholics was 2.90 while that for Protestants was
8.97 and for Jews 5.44. In this scale, the lower the score the more faviourable is
the attitude towards the Church. It was found that the mean value for those
who attend the Church was 3.06 while for those who are not attending the
Church was 5.93. The coefficient for reliability for this test was in excess of
.80, while, the coefficient for evaluating, when the results were correlated with
self rating was .68.
14.3. Likert's method of summated rating:
This method is much simpler then that of Thurstone. In this method
also, a number of statements regarding the issue have to be collected. The
subject is asked to indicate the degree or the strength of his attitude towards
each statement on a 5-point scale: strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree,
36
strongly disagree. These answers are assigned numerical values ranging from
5-1 or from 1-5 according as the response is faviourable or unfaviourable.
Thus high scores indicate a faviourable attitude. The individual score a particular
attitude scale is the sum of all his ratings on each of the items in the scale. It is
obvious that this scale does not have any absolute system of units such as
Thurstone's scale. The scores of this scale have to be interpreted merely on a
relative basis, tat is, on the basis of whether the score is higher or lower
indicating whether the attitude of the individual is more faviourable or more
unfaviourable. In this method also elaborate steps are followed in order to
eliminate all the weak items by finding out the correlation of each item with the
total test. This is how the internal consistency is established. studies have been
made to compare the results obtained by Likert's technique with results
obtained by the more complicated method preparing the scale following
Thurstone's technique. It has been found that there is a high correlation (92)
between the measurements of the two different scales. But it must be realised
that Thurstone's scale has an absolute system of units and also shows higher
reliability. Thus even though Likert's method does not make use of evaluation
by judges we find that it is quite useful. Another advantage of Likert's technique
is that it indicates the intensity of opinion as well as the direction of opinion.
14.4 Method of distance :
This method has been developed by Bogardus. It is a familiar fact that
there are various degrees of social intimacy. For example, when strangers come
to our house we may speak inside our house. On the other hand, if close
friends come to meet us we take them into our room and probably we may give
them a cup of coffee, or invite them for dinner. There are also degree of intimacy
or social distance when we are dealing with people of different religions or
poplar of different castes or people of different classes; we tend to have various
degree of social intimacy with them. It is the usual practice in several homes not
to admit the servants, other than cooks, into the kitchen. Similarly it is the usual
practice not to admit people of other castes or groups into the kitchen, or even
onto the dining room. Even with respect to the offering of seats we find that
differences are made on the basis of class, caste and other considerations.
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A man oflower caste or class may be asked to sit on the floor whereas a mat or
a chair may be provided for a person of superior caste or class. Thus in vari-
ous degree in our personal relationships with other individuals as well as in our
social relationships with members belonging to other groups we tend to maintain
a certain social distance. The most obvious illustration of the operation of this
principle of social distance is the old practice in India where, in the cities, and
even more so in the villages, the members of the Harijan group are made to live
in the outskirts of the town or the village. It is only recently, with the changes in
the attitude of people towards this problem, that members ofthe Harijan groups
are allowed to live in houses in any area of the city. Probably, it may be a long
time before a similar change comes over in the villages.

15. Attitude Formation:

How are attitudes acquired? How do they develop? The majority of
attitudes held by a person are acquired from the members of the family and
from the peer group in early childhood and later. Thus, other people are generally
the sources for the formation of attitudes. Most of our attitudes develop within
the group to which we belong. Another sources is personal experience; they,
however, from a small number; though they are more intense than those formed
by association with other people. The most intense, but rare, are the attitudes
formed by a "traumatic experience". like, for example, the shock of being
suddenly attacked physically by a member of another communal group.
The cognitive component of attitudes are influenced by the general tendency
to categorization. A Muslim meets many Hindus, but he tends to put them all
together and simplifies the problem by some such generalization as "All Hindus
are unreliable". Similarly the Hindu who meets many Muslims overlooks all the
variations and may generalize "All Muslims are crude". Such categorizations
simplify the situation but they are highly inaccurate because of the problem of
"stereotypes" in Chapter VII.
The affective component of attitudes is characterized by the presence of
positive or negative emotion. The affective component is influenced greatly by
reinforcement and repetition. The positive attitude towards festivals is due to

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food, the lights etc, which give rise to pleasure associated with individuals,
groups or social events.
The behavioural component of attitudes are greatly influenced by social
norms which are ideas held by a group regarding what is correct behaviour and
what is not. In the course of socialization children are told by parents about
what they should do and what they should not do. The general basis for negative
attitude towards Harij an is the fact that parents prevent children from associating
with sweepers, cobblers, etc., who are poor, illiterate and dirty. Why do such
norms for behaviour towards out groups develop? Triandis and Triandis (1960)
have argued that economic conditions place one group in a position of advantage
over another group. In order to maintain this position of advantage negative
attitude are developed towards the group with economic disadvantage so that it
can continue to be backward. The norms will continue to operate even when
economic considerations are not relevant. The upper caste man, for instance,
continues to look upon a person as "untouchable" Though he may have superior
education, wealth etc. This is how he tries to maintain his self-esteem (Rosenberg,
1967).
Among the personality variables which determine the formation of attitudes,
the most important is child-training which leads to formation of "authoritarian"
personality. Adorna et al (1950) showed that people who had stem and punitive
fathers and grew up in families organized along hierarchical lines with a powerful
father figure, developed the authoritarian personality. Such people accept in
group authority figures without questioning them, desire powerful leaders, show
obedience and respect for authority, approve severe punishment for deviants
and admire military men, athletes and financiers. By contrast those low in
authoritarianism prefer equalitarian leaders, show warmth and love in interpersonal
relations, are tolerant of deviants, admire scientists, artists and social reformers.
Thus, those high in authoritarian scale are highly prejudiced in their outlook
while those low in it are tolerant.
Another significant personality variable is "conscience" or inner control.
There is a good deal of evidence to show that when the mother is the chief
socializer using techniques of discipline like withdrawal oflove, the child develops
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internal controls. But, when the father is the chief socializer using techniques of
discipline like physical punishment, the child has weak internal controls; the
child does not learn to controls are more likely to act according to their own
standards, while those who are under the influence of external controls are
more likely to act according to the norms of their in group.
Thus, the kind of child training to which different individuals are
exposed results in different conceptualizations regarding interpersonal relationships.
The more positive conceptualization lead to an outlook that people are good,
strong and humanistic; they advocate negotiation etc., to settle disputes. But
those who had experience of highly punitive child-training practices are likely
to develop negative views of human relations looking upon people as bad and
weak and favour setting disputes by violence.
Insecurity is another important personality variable. Sense of insecurity
makes a person to be intolerant of ambiguity; so he may opt for "right dictatorship"
(fascism) or "left dictatorship" (communism). Insecurity may be caused not
only be child training, where the parents punish inconsistently and without
explanation, but also by loss pf status in adult life.
Among the societal variables determining attitudes are membership of
groups. A person is not only a member of some groups, he also aspires to
belong to other groups, called "reference groups" A person's attitudes are
anchored in his membership and to the reference group.
For example, Jennings and Nirmi (1968) found in nationwide sample in
U.S.A. that 76 per cent of high school seniors favoured the political party
which both parents favoured and only 10 percent had opposite preference.
Thus, the fact that on many issues the child is exposed to only one position at
home, in the peer group etc., results in his attitudes reflecting it. But when they
are exposed to conflicting opinions, as in the case of those who go to the
college, there will be changes in attitude because of the new views being
expressed by the teachers and follow students (Newcomb, 1943). Studies have
shown that only about 50 to 60 per cent ofthe colleges students agree with the
political party preference of their parents as against 76 per cent at the high
school level. But there is also the pressure towards cognitive consistency that
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will be operating during youth and adult periods. As a result only those beliefs
and values tend to be accepted which will fit in with the already existing cognitive
structure.
Thus, attitude formation beings primarily as a learning process during
childhood and adolescence. Once the attitudes are formed the influence of the
principle of cognitive consistency becomes increasingly important. The individual
in no longer primarily passive. He begins to process the new information in
terms of what he has already learned. He tends to reject inconsistent information
and accept more readily information consistent with his attitude. Thus, well-
established attitudes tend to be extremely resistant to change, but others may
be more amenable to change.

16. Attitude Change:

As we have seen earlier, we can only infer attitudes on the basis of the
readiness of the people to respond positively or negatively towards certain
situations or areas. Further, attitude formation brings about a consistent and
characteristic mode of reaction to particular situation. Consequently, attitude
change means a change in the stand of the individual regarding a given issue or
problem. It may be asked, how we can find out whether a person's attitude
with respect to some issue has changed. We can measure the change of a
attitude by the same methods as we employed in our study of the existence of
attitude. Attitude change implies that the issue towards which we were unfourable
produces now an attitude of being favourable towards it or vice versa.
It must be borne in mind that both the formation of attitude and change
of attitude are not self-generating. Formation as well as change of attitude involve
inter-personal relations. Consequently, there are both internal factors as well as
external factors involved in the formation and change of attitudes. The internal
factors refer to the motives ofthe individuals, the ideals of the individuals and
so on. The external factors refer to the experiences of the individual, the
communication which he receives from others in the group and so on.

16.1 Techniques For Attitude Change:

In the recent years, experimental work has been done in order to determine

41
the techniques for bringing about changes in attitudes. In a broad way it may be
stated that there are two methods used to induce changes in attitudes:
(a) by exposing individuals to an external influence, the experimenter
tried to study the changes which have taken place in the individuals. The design of
the experiment is as follows: An attitude test is given to a group of individuals.
A measure is obtained of their attitude towards the particular issue. For
example, we can give an attitude test to a group of people to measure their
attitudes towards the Harijan. After this, the whole group will be exposed to a
particular experience, for example, a Harjin Sevak Singh leader may be invited
to deliver a lecture upon the problem of the Harijan, and the attempts made by
the Harijan Sevak Singh to improve the living conditions of the Harijans, or
probably a film may be shown of the conditions of the Harijan collage, its dirt,
its equator its utter poverty and degradation of the conditions under which the
Harijan live and the way in which a programme of work for the uplift of the
Harijans, their education, improvement of theory houses, working conditions,
social relationship with the other groups of people and so on, may be shown.
After exposing the group towards a particular experience or series of experi-
ences, again an attitude test may be given. The difference, ifany, between these
two measures will indicate the influence of the experience in bringing about a
change in attitude. In a similar way, for instance, we can study the attitude of
people of a given area towards the Bhoodan movement just before Vinobaji is
programmed to visit that area. A week or two after Vinobaji passed thought
that area, again an attitude test may be given. This will tell us to what extent
exposure to Vinobaji' s personality, his lectures, contact with Bhoodan workers,
bring about a change among the people of the given area with respect to the
Bhoodan movement.
(b) The second method of studying the conditions under which attitude
changes take place is by what is known as the interaction technique. Here the
individual is placed in a social setting and there is opportunity for him to have
interactions with other individuals. One of the most impressive investigations
of attitude change using this technique is Newcomb's Bennington method.
Bennington College is a small women's college in the United States with about
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250 students. It is situated in a fairly isolated place. Consequently, the students
are not exposed to the usual city experiences. The authorities ofthis University
and the teachers have a liberal outlook regarding the social and economic issues.
It was one of the ideals ofthis college to make a student become aware of the
social issues. The students came from urban, economically privileged families.
So their attitude towards a number of these social and political issues was
generally conservative. Newcomb gave a test every years to study the attitudes
of the students towards live social issues. He also employed the technique of
interviewing. Among the issues were unemplouement, public relief, the organization
oflabour and so on. These studies were made in the 1930s during the depression
years. Newcomb count that the great majority of the students shifted from
conservative stand to the liberal stand regarding these issues. It was found that
prestige and leadership were acquired by students. who were very liberal. The
differences in the attitudes with respect to these live issues were statistically
reliable. But it was also found that there were some students who did not
change appreciably. Further, there were a few who resisted change. Newcomb
asserts that the changes among the great majority, as well as the resistance to
change among the few, could be explained in terms of the Reference Group
concept. As we have seen already, each group will have its own norm, with its
own status and role-structures. The individual derives his attitudes from the
prevailing norms of the group. Now for the great majority ofthe students who
changed from conservative to liberal attitudes the college became the reference
group. On the other hand, those who resisted change continued to be influenced
by the family as their reference group. In other words, for these people the
college community did not become a reference group. Consequently, the social
norms, within the college did not affect their attitude. Thus, this study of
Newcomb shows how changes in attitude take place in an individual. He also
tried to study why the college community became a reference group to many
individuals and why it did not become a reference group for others. He found
that for the majority of the students the college community became effective by
providing a sense of belongingness, a sense of status and achievement. Thus
students reported that they were "absorbed in college committee affairs" and
43
"influenced be community expectations". Thus the college community was a
very important influence in the lives of these people. On the other hand, the
individuals who did not change reported that they were "indifferent to the
activities of the students committees". It was father found that in some of these
individuals there was a conflict between the ideals of the home and the family
and the ideals of the college. One girl said "family against faculty has been my
struggle here". Thus, a thorough study of the personal variations with respect
to attitude change involves an intensive study of each individuals, his personal
history, the informal cliques to which he belongs and so on.
We can give another illustration of this technique of group interaction.
Kurt Lewin and his associates made very important studies about the problem
of attitude change using the technique of groups decision. As Cartwright and
Zander put t "the logic behind these studies is that a group norm is the priority
of the group as a whole. If one is to change this norm, and thus the behaviour
of the individuals, it can best be done by having the entire group participate in
the decision to make the change". As we seen above, an individual derives his
attitude from the standards or norms of the group to which he belongs. It is as
a result of active participation in the group setting that the individual derives his
attitudes. Consequently if the experiences which the individual has are contrary
to the group norms then these experiences will not bring about a change in the
attitude of the individual. On the other hand, is the group itself changes its
norms, then it is easy for the individual to change his attitudes.

17. Aim of the present study:

The aim of the present study has been to study and analyse attitude
towards drugs addiction. In this study male and female urban-rural, backward
non-backward subject belonging to various age groups compared. The main
effect and interactive also found. It is obviously observed that the drug problems
is often associated with the process of socialization and urbanization. During
these processes each and every person develops different type of attitude towards
social, customs and traditions as well as drug addiction or not it a developing
country. India is a very much in the throes of urbanization and modernization

44
processes and hence the drug scene in the country needs to be watched carefully.
Drug addiction may become burning problem in coming days. A study of
attitudes towards drug addiction may be helpful to conduct the problem of
drug addiction. Hence the aim of the present study is to study attitude towards
drug addiction among various age groups of backward and non-backward
people of different areas.

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