A report of 50 adolescent drug abusers seen in Dublin is presented. 84% were male and 80% were Irish. Their school achievement was poor and 62% were frequent truants in their last school year. This occurred prior to the onset of drug taking. Their work records were also unsatisfactory, jobs being changed frequently while 60% were unemployed for more than one year of an average working life of four years. In 40% of the families one of the parents, usually the father, was dead or absent.

The family size was larger than the national average while in 70%, one of the members was using drugs in the course of legitimate treatment or illegally. The majority of the sample began using drugs in their post school-leaving year. Cannabis and LSD were the two drugs most commonly used. 48% has used drugs intravenously. 46 % had used drugs for more than three years. Data obtained from the Cattell 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire suggested that this was generally a personality disorder group.