Stage theory and research on tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use

The purpose of this article was to examine the conceptual and empirical foundations of individual drug use stage development and progression related to tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. This review indicated that while greater acceptance of the idea that drug use is a complex process, the majority of stage conceptualizations suffer from significant limitations. Although limited, research conducted to date is supportive of the existence of intra-drug use stages of acquisition for cigarettes and other drugs. Research examining inter-drug use progression among youth supports the idea of a generally invariant sequence at a macro-sequential level, involving nonuse to legal drug use, marijuana use, and finally other illegal drug use.