1 - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

8
DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The fieldwork of the study started mid 1987 and ended two years
later. The sample consisted of 150 hard drug users. Respondents were
recruited from the hard-core of the Amsterdam (street) junkie scene. In
line with popula.tion estimates, the sample was divided so that two-thirds
of the subjects were ambulant methadone maintenance clients. The remainder
were not involved in methadone prescription. The first subsample was
randomly approached on the premises of the methadone maintenance agencies,
while th~ second subsample was recruited by snowballing techniques, mainly
starting in the drugs area of Amsterdam. The deoign allowed for a maximum
of seven interviews, over a period of about 13 months, about drug taking
and ecol'lomic behavior. All standard interviews referred retrospectively to
the preceding seven days. :The first three interviews took place in the
first three weeks, the next four quart·erly3. Respondents were interviewed
in a fieldstation, a bar or -depending on the weather- on a bench in the
street.
In addition to quantitati,re information, a life history interview was
conducted. Respondents were asked about their family backgrounds, peer
group, criminal and drug careers and their motivation to preserve their
deviant lifestyles. The fieldworkers a.nd researchers also spent considerable
time observing the daily activities on the streets of central Amsterdam.
The experiences and observations were recorded in a personal diary.
The design of the study is much alike the Johnson et al study,
conducted in New York (Johnson et al, 1985). The major differ~nces are the
number of and time interval between the interviews and the. emphasis on
389 respondents completed the interview cycle.
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