Fire and Brimstone, Lager and Pot: Religious Involvement and Substance Use*

Data from nearly 5,000 high school seniors Ÿ six states in the northeastem region of the United States are analyzed using religious preference and attendance to predict substance use (hard liquor, beer, marijuana, mphetamines, barbiturates, heroin, LSD, and cocaine). Irwas hypothesized that (I) denomination and attendance would be significantly related o the use of alcohol and that an interac. tion would occur beteen these twopredictors, (2) church attendance should llave special impact w th n proscriptive denominations, a d (3) for harder drugs, church attendance would be inversely related with use. Analysis.of-variance and multiple classification analysis were employed. Weekly use and having ever mployed the substance were utilized for alcohol and marijuana nd having ever used the substance was used for hard drugs. The data support he hypotheses. The relationship between religiousness and drug use has received attention both from scholars in the sociology of religion and from those concerned with mood altering sub-stances and deviance. Both groups emphasize involvement in the religious ystem as re-lated to lower rates of substance use and deviance. Little regard has been paid to differ-ences among denominations in their outlooks toward drugs, including alcohol. Yet the older literature stressed such differences, noting that some denominations had take