Peer support, perceptions of adverse effects, and the hallucinogenic drug experience

The relationship between peer support and perceived effects of hallucinogenic drug use is examined, informed by Howard Becker's (1967) hypothesis that peers may provide benign interpretive contexts for drug induced experiences that reduce the psychologically threatening effects that would ordinarily accompany hallucinogenic drug use. Using data from a sample of 995 subjects who reported ever using hallucinogens, the effects of three separate measures of peer support on three different measures of perceptions of adverse effects as consequences of initial drug use were estimated in logistic regression models, controlling for demographic background characteristics of race/ethnicity, father's education, and a tendency to over-endorse statements. The results of these analyses show partial support for Becker's hypothesis in one model predicting perceptions of adverse psychological effects. Subjective distress interacts with peer support to predict reports of psychological effects. Subjects who report subjective distress and who report initiating drug use because their friends were doing it are significantly less likely to report adverse psychological effects of drug use. Additionally, differences in perceptions of unpleasant effects from initial drug use were found across racial/ethnic categories.