A household survey of 3,253 rural persons, conducted as part of the 1979 National Survey on Drug Abuse, focused on comparisons between rural and non-rural drug usage patterns. The findings indicated that rates of illicit drug use in rural areas increased through the 1970's and that rural/non-rural differences in illicit drug use declined. Rural and non-rural users of illicit drugs resembled each other demographically; age, education, and gender were associated with illicit drug use in the same ways in both types of areas. Rural and non-rural residents began using illicit drugs at approximately the same age. More than half of the rural young adults (age 18-25) and more than one-fourth of the rural youth (age 12-17) had used marijuana at least once; of the two groups, half were current users, i.e., they had used marijuana within the month prior to the interview. Rural/non-rural differences were much more noticeable in the South and North Central regions; in contrast, rural and non-rural areas in the West and Northeast showed much smaller differences. The findings suggest that the emergence of drug abuse in rural areas may be related to variations in the rural environment. (Author/NRB)