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Review Questions
Chapter 1:
1. Besides asking a person the question directly, what is one way a psychologist can try to
determine why a person is taking a drug?
They could analyze the correlates of drug use, such as risk and protective factors, race,
gender, level of education, personality variables, genetics and antecedents.
2. What two characteristics of a drugs effect might change when the dose is increased?
Large doses, frequent doses, or taking the drug by a method that results in a lot of the
drug getting to the brain quickly can produce very different effects, and generally more
problems, than taking the same drug in a single lower dose.
3. In about what year did drug use in the United States peak?
1980.
4. About what percentage of college students use marijuana?
Among American college students, almost 70 percent can be considered current users of
alcohol, less than 20 percent current smokers of tobacco cigarettes, or marijuana, and less than 2
percent current users of cocaine.
5. What do the results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health tell us about the overall
rates of marijuana and cocaine use among whites compared to African Americans in the United
States?
Whites are slightly more likely to use both drugs.
6. How does having a college degree influence rates of drinking alcohol? Using tobacco?
College graduates are more likely to drink alcohol but less likely to use other drugs
comparatively.
7. Name one risk factor and one protective factor related to the family/ parents.
A risk factor would be knowing adults who use marijuana or other substances and a
protective factor would be having parents as a source of social support.
8. How does impulsivity relate to rates of drug use in the general population? How does
impulsivity relate to substance dependence?

Impulsivity is turning out to be of much interest to drug researchers, but also hard to pin
down in that different laboratories have different ways of measuring it. In general, it seems to
relate to a persons tendency to act quickly and without consideration of the longer term
consequences.

Chapter 2:
1. The French term laissez- faire is used to de-scribe what type of relationship between a
government and its people?
In the 1800s, the U. S. government, like the majority of countries around the world, had
virtually no laws governing the sale or use of most drugs. The idea seemed to be that, if the seller
wanted to sell it and the buyer wanted to buy it, let them do it laissez- faire, in French. This
term has been used to characterize the general nature of the U. S. government of that era.
2. What three major concerns about drugs led to the initial passage of laws controlling their
availability?
Three main concerns aroused public interest: ( 1) toxicity: some drug sellers were
considered to be endangering the public health and victimizing individuals because they were
selling dangerous, toxic chemicals, often without labeling them or putting appropriate warnings
on them; ( 2) dependence: some sellers were seen as victimizing individuals and endangering
their health by selling them habit- forming drugs, again often without appropriate labels or
warnings; and ( 3) crime: the drug user came to be seen as a threat to public safety the attitude
became widespread that drug- crazed individuals would often commit horrible, violent crimes.
3. Long- term, heavy drinking can lead to permanent impairment of memory. What type of
toxicity is this (acute or chronic; physiological or behavioral)?
This would be a chronic impairment.
4. What two kinds of data are recorded by the DAWN system?
Drug related hospital visits and drug related deaths.
5. What drugs other than alcohol are mentioned most often in both parts of the DAWN system?
Prescription opioids & cocaine.
6. Why has AIDS been of particular concern for users of illicit drugs?
One specific toxicity concern for users who inject drugs is the potential for spreading
blood-borne diseases, such as HIV, AIDS, and the life-threatening liver infections hepatitis B and
hepatitis C. These viral diseases can all be transmitted through the sharing of needles.

7. What drugs and methods of using them are considered to have very high dependence
potential?
Certainly some drugs are more likely than others to result in dependence. For example, it
is widely believed that heroin and crack cocaine are both extremely likely to lead to compulsive
use.
8. What is the apparent dependence potential of hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD and
mescaline?
Very low.
9. What are four ways in which drug use might theoretically cause crime?
1. There are several senses in which it might be said that drugs cause crime, but the most
frightening possibility is that drug use somehow changes the individuals personality in a
lasting way, making him or her into a criminal type.
2. A second sense in which drug use might cause criminal behavior is when the person is
under the influence of the drug.
3. A third sense in which drug use may be said to cause crime refers to crimes carried out
for the purpose of obtaining money to purchase illicit drugs.
4. The fourth and final sense in which drug use causes crime is that illicit drug use is a
crime.
10. About how many arrests are made each year in the United States for violations of drug laws?
1.5 million arrests.

Chapter 3:
1. What four kinds of habit-forming drug use at the start of the 20th century caused social
reactions leading to the passage of federal drug laws?
Alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, & heroin.
2. What were the two fundamental pieces of federal drug legislation passed in 1906 and 1914?
The 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing and sales.
The 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act regulated opioids and cocaine. Finally, alcohol prohibition
was ratified in 1918 and implemented in 1919.
3. In about what year did it first become necessary for drug companies to demonstrate to the
FDA that new drugs were effective for their intended use?
4. What three phases of clinical drug testing are required before a new drug application can be
approved?

5. What historic piece of federal legislation did the most to shape our overall approach to the
control of habit- forming drugs in the United States?
6. On which of the five Schedules is each of these drugs listed: heroin, marijuana, cocaine,
methamphetamine?
7. What is the important difference between a Schedule I and a Schedule II controlled substance?
8. What are drug paraphernalia laws, and why have they been subject to court challenges?
9. What are the limitations of urine screening versus hair sample analysis?
10. Approximately how much is the United States spending per year on federal drug-control
efforts?