EthnicMajority

(Medicalxpress) A new analysis of teenage drug abuse finds widespread problems among whites, Native Americans, Hispanics and youngsters of multiple races, with less severe abuse among Asian and African-American teens.

Among kids who abuse drugs, marijuana is most heavily used, followed by stimulants and then alcohol. Prescription opioids such as oxycodone have surpassed inhalants as a source for getting high.

The findings, reported Monday by scientists at Duke University and elsewhere, are published in the November issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

"I think it will be surprising to some people what the numbers show," said Dan C. Blazer, M.D., PhD, in Duke's Department of Psychiatry and senior author on the study. "There's a significant burden of these disorders, and it's important to recognize that among teens using these substances, there's between a 10 percent and 26 percent chance of having a substance use disorder."

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(Los Angeles Times) A survey of students at 16 California middle schools shows Hispanic kids are more likely to smoke, drink or use marijuana than their peers in other ethnic or racial groups. In probing for the reasons for substance use, researchers found that Hispanic youths may lack confidence in their ability to say “no” to peers.

The study, conducted by Regina A. Shih and her colleagues at Rand Corp., was comprised of 5,500 seventh- and eighth-grade students who were surveyed about their drug use and factors influencing drug use. Overall, 22% of the students said they had ever used alcohol, 10% said they had smoked at some point and 7% admitted to smoking marijuana. But Hispanic youths were more likely to have used these substances compared with other groups. Among Hispanic students, 26% had tried alcohol, 12% had smoked cigarettes and 9% used marijuana.

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(USA Today) Hispanic-American adults have lower rates of alcohol and illicit drug use than the national averages, a federal government study has found.

The research revealed that 46.1% of Hispanic-American adults drink alcohol and 6.6% use illicit drugs, compared with national average rates of 55.2% and 7.9%, respectively.

However, Hispanic-American adults have a slightly higher level of binge drinking (26.3 percent versus 24.5%) and a slightly higher past-year need for alcohol treatment (8.7 percent versus 8.1%), according to a news release from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The study also found significant differences in rates of adult substance use among various Hispanic-American groups. For example, the level of past month alcohol use among Spanish Americans is above the national average and 50% higher than among Dominican Americans (60.8 percent versus 40.3%, respectively). And the rate of current illicit drug use among Spanish Americans is nearly three times higher than the level among Dominican Americans (13.1 percent versus 3.9%, respectively).

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