ATTRIBUTES OF HEAVY VS OCCASIONAL MARIJUANA SMOKERS IN A COLLEGE POPULATION

We sought whether college students who smoked marijuana heavily were d istinguishable from students who had used the drug only occasionally. We compared 45 long-term heavy marijuana smokers (individuals who had smoked daily for at least 2 years) with 44 ''occasional'' smokers (ind ividual who had never smoked more than 10 times in a month at any time in their lives), drawn from the student populations at tow Boston-are a colleges. Measures included a questionnaire covering a range of demo graphic, drug use, and subjective items; the Rand Mental Health Invent ory; and both the Axis I and Axis II sections of the Structured Clinic al Interview for DSM-III-R. Heavy smokers reported higher rated of use of other substances, especially hallucinogens and cocaine, and they d escribed greater subjective impairment of memory and motivation than o ccasional smokers; however, on a wide range of demographic, family bac kground, and mental health measures, the heavy smokers proved almost i ndistinguishable from occasional smokers. Even the heaviest college ma rijuana smokers exhibit few demographic or psychiatric features that d istinguish them from students who smoke only occasionally.