Addict careers. III. Trends across time.

A study of Baltimore narcotic addicts who have come to the attention of authorities during a 25-year period provides the basis for an analysis of changes across time in the personal characteristics and life-style attributes of the addict population. Trends are presented wih respect to (1) racial composition, (2) social status, (3) residential stability, (4) educational attainment, (5) occupational stability, (6) juvenile delinquency, (7) criminality, (8) age at onset of addiction, and (9) drug of choice. Also examined are changes in the distributional composition of a typology of addict careers based on concepts of opportunity and motivation to use narcotics.