Spirituality/Religion and Illicit Drug Use

The purpose of the present study was to describe the religious and spiritual beliefs of generally normal, successful, adult, recreational drug users and put them in the context of an otherwise normal healthy adult life. In short, is there a relationship between the strength of a respondent's spiritual or religious belief and the patterns of their recreational drug use. This study was delimited to U.S. citizens, aged 18years and older, who completed the DRUGNET survey (n=1,567). DRUGNET was a descriptive online survey of self reported attitudes and behaviors among a group of adult, self identified drug users (i.e., not drug abusers). This study is a cross-sectional, sub-analysis of the previously collected DRUGNET survey data. The sample included 1,178 current users of illicit drugs and 389 former users. Spirituality (4.79; SD = 3.07) and religiosity (4.19; SD = 4.19) were measured on an 11-point (0-10) scale with 0 indicating ‘no importance' and a 10 indicating ‘central focus of life.' Religious service attendance was measured by a yes (n = 200) or no (n = 1355) response to whether they regularly attend services. Using a canonical analysis it was found that regular church attendance was negatively associated with marijuana, cocaine, and hallucinogens. Spirituality and religiosity were positively associated with use of depressants, stimulants, and opiates. Spirituality but not religiosity was negatively associated with marijuana use.