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Characteristics of Smoked Drug Use Among Cocaine Smokers

NCJ Number
166671
Journal
American Journal on Addictions Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1997) Pages: 237-245
Author(s)
D A Gorelick; M S Simmons; N Carriero; D P Tashkin
Date Published
1997
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Data were collected from a convenience sample of 228 physically healthy, largely treatment-seeking cocaine smokers with minimal histories of other smoked drug use (other than tobacco and marijuana) or injection drug use using structured interviews to assess characteristics of their smoked drug use.
Abstract
Subjects ranging in age from 21 to 60 years were recruited between 1988 and 1990 from patients undergoing cocaine addiction treatment at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center and several private treatment programs in the Los Angeles area. Most subjects who smoked cocaine also smoked either marijuana only (17.5 percent), tobacco only (17 percent), or both (61 percent), with the onset of such smoking almost always preceding the initiation of regular cocaine smoking. Few significant differences were observed in sociodemographic or cocaine use characteristics among subgroups of subjects who smoked either cocaine only or cocaine and marijuana and/or tobacco. More than one-third of marijuana smokers quit (45 percent) or decreased (38 percent) their use after starting regular cocaine smoking, whereas only 5 percent of tobacco smokers did so. Findings suggest that marijuana smoking is more influenced by regular cocaine smoking than is tobacco smoking. 17 references and 3 tables

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