Introduction

The problem of drug use within the United States has emerged as one of the more highly publicized yet least understood phenomena among contemporary health and social problems. The problem of drug use developed so rapidly that it initially precluded any concentrated attempts to develop an understanding of how and why drugs became incorporated so quickly into the national lifestyle. In 1966 the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in order to begin to achieve a perspective on the prevalence of drug use within the United States, sponsored a large nationwide study to begin to acquire information about the nature and extent of drug use among the nation’s high school seniors. The need for a broad-based epidemiological study in Alaska was imperative because Alaska, with its mainly youthful population and its “last frontier” atmosphere, was alleged to have a high prevalence of drug use.