The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
Marihuana - A Signal of Misunderstanding.
Chapter II
marihuana use and its effects
Set and Setting
An important variable in discussing the effect of marihuana on the user is the social
and emotional environment; that is, the individual's "set" and
"setting."
"Set" refers to a combination of factors that create the "internal
environment" of the individual, including personality, life style, and philosophy,
past drug experiences, personal expectations of drug effect, and mood at the time of the
drug experience.
"Setting" refers to the external environment and social context in which the
individual takes the drug. These factors are most influential when drugs are taken at low
dosages and, like marihuana, produce minimal physical and subtle subjective mental
effects. The effect of marihuana generally will be quite different for an intermittent
social adult smoker from that of a youth deeply involved in the youthful drug subculture.
These factors partially account for the belief of a marihuana user that he is experiencing
a "high" in certain experiments even when he is given a non-marihuana substance
(placebo) but is told it is marihuana.
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