Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons^™

Drug Use Trajectory Patterns Among Older Drug Users, Miriam W. Boeri, Thor Whalen, Benjamin Tyndall, Ellen Ballard

Miriam W. Boeri

To better understand patterns of drug use trajectories over time, it is essential to have standard measures of change. Our goal here is to introduce measures we developed to quantify change in drug use behaviors. A secondary goal is to provide effective visualizations of these trajectories for applied use. We analyzed data from a sample of 92 older drug users (ages 45 to 65) to identify transition patterns in drug use trajectories across the life course. Data were collected for every year since birth using a mixed methods design. The community-drawn sample of active and former users were 40% female, …