Becoming a cannabis user? A quantitative view.

The study made by Howard S. Becker, devoted to the, career, of marijuana users has become a reference for ethnographical surveys carried out later on, but hardly inspired the statistical work done by epidemiologists. This article first attempts to understand more clearly this apparent incompatibility, by underlining the inevitable failings when giving an epidemiological analysis of drug use, After this, the re-examination of the data available makes it possible to associate the theses developed by Becker with a series of hypotheses which can be validated by statistics. This validation is made using a self-led survey carried out in schools in 1999 with 12 1 13 teenagers in metropolitan France. The results obtained confirm the relevance of a sequential approach for the use of cannabis. On the one hand, according to the degree of consumption in question, the factors associated with this use vary (notably the places where the drug is supplied and used among peers). On the other hand, the neutralization techniques brought up by Becker find a convincing echo in the opinions declared by the surveys. More generally, this article illustrates the possible complementarity between statistical and ethnographical approaches.