ABSTRACT
The first point of controversy we confront is in the question: "Why?" Why do some people use marijuana while others do not? The papers that follow explore this question from two points of view: the psychological and the sociological. This polarization is not to imply that the two approaches are mutually exclusive—that no psychologist would consider sociological factors, or that all sociologists agree on one explanation for the phenomenon. But differences in approach do exist, and they are a matter of stress. The psychologist, of whatever theoretical school, will usually stress personality factors. He is concerned with motives for use, and the individual actor is the unit of analysis. In order to understand why a person does what he does, particularly if his activity challenges the established social order, we must, the psychologist points out, understand a person's biography, particularly his early family relations. An individual of a certain background will be predisposed to specific kinds of behavior; in relation to drug use, for instance, psy16chologists sometimes speak of a "pre-addict" personality. Certain character traits are "mature" and "reality-oriented"—and the drug user's are generally considered the reverse: his goals and life style are characteristic of childhood, and his irresponsibility, egocentrism, and extreme hedonism are typical of an arrested personality structure, one out of harmony with the society in which he lives.
