NCJ Number
175149
Journal
Addiction Volume: 91 Issue: 1 Dated: January 1996 Pages: 47-61
Date Published
1996
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examined the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use in the Southwest border region of the United States.
Abstract
Based on the seriousness of drug trafficking in the area, the Southwest border has been designated a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area." Yet there is little quantitative data on the nature and magnitude of drug use in the Southwest border region. this study analyzed the prevalence of drug use in the area by extracting data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the primary source of data on illicit drug use in the United States. The survey oversamples Hispanics in the geographical areas where they are most concentrated in order to increase the precision of estimates for this ethnic subgroup. Due to the concentration of Hispanics in the Southwest border area, the survey can provide estimates of drug use for this area, with some limitations. The National Household Survey is designed to measure the prevalence of drug use experience and related behaviors within the U.S. population aged 12 years and older. The 1991 survey included 32,594 respondents, with 759 living in the Southwest border area. The data show that drug use rates in the Southwest border area were similar to those found throughout the rest of the United States. Hispanics, who constituted approximately 41 percent of the Southwest border population, had lower prevalence rates for most classes of drugs than non-Hispanics. The border Hispanics exhibited even lower prevalence rates than Hispanics in the rest of the United States; however, many of these differences are attributable to the lower levels of drug use among women, youth, and older adults. As these demographic subgroups become increasingly acculturated, their drug use could more closely resemble that of their peers in the rest of the United States. 6 tables and 41 references