Interest in examining more precisely the relationship between specific motives for drug and alcohol use and personality prompted the undertaking of this study. By means of a series of canonical correlation analyses, patterns of self-attributed reasons for drug and alcohol use were interrelated to a battery of individual difference variables drawn from the domains of personality needs, daydreaming and mental style, optimal level of stimulation, and locus of control. The findings indicate that drug and alcohol use are linked to individual differences in a more complex way than is typically studied.