Initiation, motivation, and cessation of phencyclidine use.

An interview study was conducted on 200 phencyclidine (PCP) users in Northern California. The study population, generated through snowball sampling techniques, was constituted primarily of persons not in treatment programs and included three types of users: heavy chronic, light chronic, and recreational. Differences were found between the motivations and patterns of drug use of the three different user types. Contrary to prior studies, it was found that cessation of PCP use was difficult. Most subjects wanted to stop or cut back their use of PCP but were unable to do so. Many heavy chronic users stated they had a craving for PCP.