Two Patterns of Establishing Trust: The Marijuana User

Abstract Trust has been little investigated outside the experimental laboratory situation, and its processual aspects have largely been neglected (cf. Swinth, 1967). Two common interactional patterns through which the marijuana user establishes the relationships of trust necessary for his drug-related activity are examined. The "disclosure pattern" occurs in three stages and provides the marijuana user with a coherent set of "identity documents" (Gross and Stone, 1964) as a basis for defining another person as trustworthy. The "extension pattern" provides the marijuana user with a trusted third party's definition of another as trustworthy as a basis for defining that other as trustworthy. It is suggested that these two interactional patterns may occur among groups as well as between individuals.