ABSTRACT
The proposed status model of drug use made differential predictions for use of general medications and psychotropic drugs on the basis of employment status, physical health status, mental status, and institutional status. Drug use among adolescents is commonly thought of as the voluntary consumption of illicit drugs that change behaviors or moods. Heroin users are pictured as urban black males, while users of marijuana, psychedelic drugs and, more recently, illicit prescription drugs are pictured as middle-class and upper-class suburban youth. This chapter describes drug use among the adolescents who are mentally retarded and who take prescribed psychotropic drugs. The larger focus, however, is to reconceptualize the idea of drug use within a broader context of general drug use. The utilization of general medications was 38% for the population and 33% for adolescents. The utilization of psychotropic drugs was 22% for the population and 16% for adolescents.
