Who is taking drugs and what are the consequences ?: Understanding influences of psychological and demographic factors on drug consumption and its impact on health, labour market performance and financial wealth

We investigated (1) what psychological (e.g., five big personality traits, self-esteem) and social-demographic factors contribute to the prevalence and intensity of drug use in the Netherlands and (2) the impact of taking illicit drugs on individuals’ (N=1170) health, labour market performance and financial wealth. First, analyses of various factors showed that emotional stability, employment status, urban character of the place of residence, number of children, gender, and compliance with parents can predict individuals’ drug use concurrently. Particularly, emotional stability, employment and gender can still predict drug use four years later, even when the concurrent baseline of drug use has been additionally controlled for. Instrumental variable analysis suggested that emotional stability may have a causal effect. Furthermore, we showed that, controlling for standard demographic factors, self-control, patience, risk aversion, IQ, etc., taking drugs negatively relate to participants’ physical health (e.g., general health, BMI, disease days, diabetes, and recurrent complaints) and mental health (e.g., feeling more depressed and anxious; less happy or calm), as well as predicts a significantly lower employment possibilities, income, and financial wealth than non-drug users. Our results not only show the consequences of taking drugs for different aspects of well-being, but also suggest that an intervention for drug users may also give more importance to their emotional stability and employment opportunities.