Ethical implications of a quantitative study that analyzes the drug consumers from a Bucharest neighbourhood

A. Baciu, A. Pungă

Abstract: The overall objective is to estimate some parameters that are characteristic to drug use in family, peer group, and also of the influence of such behaviour on the subjects participating to the study.
Materials and methods. The transversal descriptive study was conducted in Bucharest for a period of two months, with the participation of a batch of 44 drug users (70.5% males and 29.5% females). The age of the volunteering subjects ranged between 19 and 43 years (mean age, 31.27±5.81 years). An “omnibus” questionnaire was applied. The results were statistically analysed using SPSS version 21. The statistical instrument used is the non-parametric Chi-square test. The “snowball” type of sampling was used, the community were the study was conducted being more difficult to identify.
Results. Out of the participants to the study, 69.8% had family users, and 97.7% had friends that used drugs. 83.7% of the friends had troubles with the law. 68.2% thought of breaking the law and there is a statistically significant difference (p=0.042), in the sense that among male persons the intention to commit crimes is higher than among females. 61.4% of the respondents felt marginalized, with a statistically significant difference (p= 0.003), meaning that more males felt marginalized than females.
Conclusions. As a result of this study, it was found that information campaigns among consumers are necessary to emphasize the risk of becoming a negative model for others, but also for the whole society in order to build a realistic image on the danger of drug use and to create a correct perception on consumers.
Keywords: drugs, family, friends, crime, marginalization.