Table 3.

Percent of All Seniors Reporting Both Use of Each Drug and Reason Indicated, Averaged across 1976–2005

	Alcohol	Marijuana	LSD	Amphetamines	Barbiturates	Tranquilizers	Cocaine	Heroin	Narcotics other than heroin
Social/recreational reasons:
To have a good time	57.9a	24.7b	3.0c	4.0	1.7	1.2	3.4c	0.2b	1.6
To experiment	35.6	24.3c	4.8a	6.7c	2.9c	2.4c	5.6a	0.4a	2.9b
To get high	38.3b	28.3a	3.7b	6.3	3.2b	2.4c	5.1b	0.4a	3.0a
Because of boredom	18.2	10.2	1.1	2.0	0.9	0.8	1.0	0.1	0.9
To fit in	8.3	4.1	0.3	0.5	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.1	0.2
Coping with negative affect reasons:
To relax	32.9	17.3	0.7	2.5	3.5a	4.1a	1.5	0.2b	2.6c
To get away from problems	16.7	8.2	0.7	1.5	1.3	1.2	0.7	0.1	0.8
Because of anger/frustration	13.5	5.7	0.3	1.1	0.9	1.0	0.4	0.1	0.5
Drug effect reasons:
To increase drug effects	4.7	4.7	0.6	1.2	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.0	0.7
To decrease drug effects	0.7	0.8	0.1	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.0	0.1
Compulsive use reasons:
To get through the day	1.6	2.8	0.2	3.3	0.4	0.6	0.4	0.1	0.5
Because I am hooked	1.0	1.1	0.1	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.1
Coping with physical needs reasons:
To sleep	5.0	-	-	-	2.6	2.7b	-	-	1.5
To get more energy	-	-	-	7.9a	-	-	2.2	-	-
To stay awake	-	-	-	7.0b	-	-	1.5	-	-
To relieve pain	-	-	-	-	1.9	2.1	-	-	2.6c
To control coughing	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.9
Miscellaneous usage reasons:
Because it tastes good	37.5c	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
To seek deeper insights	3.3	5.7	2.0	0.7	0.3	0.3	0.6	0.1	0.4
To lose weight	-	-	-	4.6	-	-	-	-	-
Heroin substitute	-	-	-	-			-	-	0.1

Note: ‘-’Indicates that the question was not asked for a particular drug. To illustrate how to read the table, the first cell indicates that 57.9% of all seniors reporting that they used alcohol and did so “to have a good time.”

^aMost frequently reported reason per drug.

^bSecond most frequently reported reason per drug.

^cThird most frequently reported reason per drug.