Polar types of reported drug involvement among Israeli youth

Drug abuse social policy in the United States and Israel: a comparative sociological perspective

The United States and Israel have implemented the same social policy toward drug abuse: a supply/demand reduction model aimed at minimizing illicit drug use. The paper examines the results of this social policy in both countries, concluding that this social policy achieved a relative success in Israel, while relatively failing to achieve its explicit goal in the United States. The sociological nature of the drug abuse problem is analyzed, indicating that this problem is most efficaciously viewed as a moral-ideological one, and not as it has been: a technical-medical problem. Once the sociological nature of drug abuse is made clear, an explanation for the differential success of the supply/demand reduction model is offered. The explanation focuses on the different cultural matrices of the two societies, as well as on more technical differences such as borders and the army draft.

Alcohol and psychoactive drug use among Israeli adolescents: an epidemiological and demographic investigation

One thousand nine hundred Israeli adolescents--51.8% males and 48.2% females--aged 15 to 18, were questioned twice about their current and "ever" substance use. The first study was undertaken during September-October 1982 and the second about a year later. The findings clearly indicated a slight rise in the incidence and a moderate growth of the prevalence of substance use among Israeli adolescents. The relationships between substance use and several background sociodemographic variables that were studied are discussed.