Perception of Social Control of Marijuana among Zagreb Students – Findings on Gender Dimension

The article presents the results regarding differences between attitudes of male and female students towards, as well as patterns of marijuana use among undergraduate and graduate students in Zagreb. Attitudes towards marijuana were examined within the framework of re-evaluating the analytical utility of Becker’s mechanisms of social control – availability, secrecy, and morality. Through a survey conducted among Zagreb students, it was revealed that the differences in usage patterns between male and female students are negligible and align with findings from other studies indicating that the disappearance of gender differences is most pronounced among young adults. On the other hand, the perception of Becker’s mechanisms of availability and morality between male and female students is expressed in terms of statistical significance, but with a limited impact – female students consider marijuana somewhat more available, but they are also slightly more committed to official, morality based definitions of marijuana harm. Regarding the mechanism of secrecy, differences between male and female students were not identified, and students continue to perceive concealing marijuana use and its effects as important. As confirmed in other research, Becker’s mechanism of availability proves to be poorly functional in the context of social control of marijuana, while the mechanism of secrecy remains analytically useful in conditions of marijuana illegality, regardless of its decriminalization in Croatia. The somewhat stronger expression of the morality mechanism in female students leaves room for exploring gender-biased aspects of social control.