Indicated preference for drugs of abuse.

Experienced polydrug abusers (N = 190) were asked to indicate previous drugs used as well as drug preferences. The 11 most frequently used drugs were ranked according to percentage of subjects preferring each drug relative to reference compounds (marijuana, alcohol, amphetamine, and cocaine). A highly consistent ranking of drug preference was obtained across reference compounds. The mean ordinal ranking of drug preference was heroin (highest), amphetamine, alcohol, pentobarbital, secobarbital, marijuana, cocaine, codeine, diazepam, LSD, and hashish (lowest). The ranking of drugs by preference was unrelated to incidence of use of drug accessibility.