Normalization of marijuana use: its effects on adolescents' intentions to use marijuana

The comparative salience of attitudes, normative influences, and perceptions of the ease or difficulty of engaging in marijuana use was examined in 91 adolescents from three subsamples: those living in Nimbin, Australia, where marijuana use appears to have become normalized, a control group, and a group of homeless adolescents, surveyed in 1997. There were no differences between two of the groups in relation to their attitudes towards marijuana, and no differences in perceived access to the drug. For those who intended using marijuana, personal beliefs were significantly more salient than beliefs about what important others thought they should do.