NCJ Number
228058
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: July/August 2009 Pages: 396-403
Date Published
August 2009
Length
8 pages
Annotation
A sample of 641 undergraduate college students were surveyed regarding the prevalence and predictors of the use of salvia divinorum, a psychoactive drug that is not illegal to use, possess, and/or distribute.
Abstract
The results indicate that approximately 6.7 percent of the surveyed sample reported ever using salvia; 3 percent of the sample reported using salvia in the past 12 months. This is a lightly lower number than was reported in the only other university prevalence study found in a literature review. Students more likely to have reported experimenting with salvia were White, had parents with higher incomes, smoked marijuana more often, and had lower self-control. Those with the lowest likelihood of having experimented with salvia are non-White females with high self-control and infrequent use of marijuana. Data were obtained with a self-report survey developed in the fall of 2006. The survey was designed to measure general forms of deviance, substance use, fear of crime, victimization, and propensity for engaging in criminal and analogous behavior. Specific questions were included to determine the prevalence (life-time and recent) of salvia use among the sample. Use of marijuana and alcohol in the past 12 months and 30 days were also determined. The dependent variable was salvia use. Independent variables included demographic information, marijuana and alcohol use, and self-control. The latter was measured with Grasmick, Tittle, Bursik, and Arneklev's (1993) 24-item self-report scale. 3 tables, 4 figures, 14 notes, and 37 references