Cannabis use, sport practice and other leisure activities at the end of adolescence.
OBJECTIVE
To study the relationship between cannabis use, sports practice and other leisure activities during adolescence, as a test for the sociological theory of deviant opportunities.


METHODS
A sample of 12,512 French adolescents aged 18 responded to an anonymous self-reported questionnaire in March 2001. Three logistic models (for occasional, recent and regular cannabis use) were estimated for girls and boys separately.


RESULTS
Outings and other peer-oriented activities were strongly correlated with cannabis use but this relationship depended on which levels of use were considered. Occasional use was more common among respondents who participated in many different outdoor activities. Regular use was associated with a more selective lifestyle, focusing on music-oriented outings and time spent at a friend's home in the evening.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results provided empirical support for the theory of deviant opportunities. Changing patterns of lifestyle associated with transition from initiation to higher levels of use may reveal a shift from opportunities of cannabis use provided by a wide range of activities to specific activities chosen for their convenience to cannabis use. Further research will need to investigate how drug use is shaped by lifestyle, and conversely, how drug use reshapes lifestyle.
Peretti-Watel
Patrick
P
INSERM U379, Regional Centre for Disease Control of South-Eastern France (ORS PACA), 23 rue Stanislas Torrents, 13006 Marseilles, France. peretti@marseille.inserm.fr
Lorente
Fabrice Olivier
FO
D000293:Adolescent; D002188:Cannabis; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*