Fifty six cases of habitual marihuana smokers who had been arrested by government detectives or policemen during the period of six months from July to December 1972 were studied for the purpose of evaluating the ecological and psychopathological patterns.
Thirty three (58.39%) were mald and 23 (41.07%) were female. Eight (24. 24%) in male and 3(13. 04%) in female were teenagers, 25 (75. 76%) in male and 18 (78. 28%) in female were between 20 and 25 years of age. Their educational background as well as socio-economic status of family was remarkably high with contrasting to that of general population especially in the male group. Twenty one (63.64%) in male and 8 (34.78%) in female started to smoke marihuana in their teens. Fifteen (45.45%) in male and 4 (17.39 %) in female were students or reexamines for college, 18 (78, 28%) among females were barmaids or mistresses for the foreigners, 7 (21.22%) among males were entertainers or disc-jockeys. The source of purchasing marihuana was mostly from foreign soldiers or from smuggling persons in tea rooms or bars. Their motivations of marihuana smoking could be evaluated as follows; a) The angry and antisocial youngsters; they smoke marihuana because society prohibited marihuana smoking, b) The neurotic or borderline cases; they use marihuana for relieving tension from interpersonal difficulties, c) The fantasy-seekingyoungsters; they use it for escape from painful reality into fantastic world, d) The youngsters who really enjoy marihuana smoking; The yseek it for delicious and ecstatic experience, e) The youngsters with curiosity; they smoke it for 1
or with curiosity. Their main frustration wa ;primarily from parental attitudes such as undesirable love, over. concern, excessive demanding, indifference, rejection, less understandable attitude and so on. They protest against all the social and ethical values and are not future oriented but concern about only present enjoy_ ment. Sexual chaos such as a group sex is also a frequent event in marihuana trance. They smoke marihuana always in the peer-groups.
Marihuana smoking has spread in and around tae U.S. Army camp areas in Korea since several veal s. Initially, foreigner´s mistresses smoked marihuana known as´ happy smoke´. But some of young peoples around 20 years of age have been recentl\ involved in marihuana smoking. The government has strongly prohibited the marihuana use by legal sanction since 1970. Even the probable incidence of marihuana use can not be estimated because of lack of available survey. Though the samples of this study are hardly sufficient to evaluate the over-all patterns of marihuana smokers because of small size of the sample used, the authors feel that this study may be able to give a suggestion of clue to estimate some characteristics in Korea.
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