The International Journal of the Addictions, 14(6), 855-860, 1979
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Research Note
Drug Use among Native American Young Adults G. S. Goldstein, Ph.D. Department of Hospitals & Institutions State of New Mexico Sante Fe. New Mexico 87503
E. R. Oetting," Ph.D. Ruth Edwards, B.A. Department of Psychology Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
Velma Garcia- Mason, M.A. University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico 871 12
Abstract
Young adult Native American students at a postsecondary educational institute showed a very high level of use of all drugs when compared with other samples of college age youth. Alcohol, marijuana, and amphetamines were drugs of choice; 31% had tried inhalants although there was little present use; 10% were *To whom requests for reprints should be sent. 855
Copyright @ 1979 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Neither this work nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
GOLDSTEIN ET AL.
856
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involved in a drug subculture, using multiple drugs relatively heavily. The authors’ interpretation of these findings is either the institution attracts drug users or young Native Americans from relatively isolated environments have higher susceptibility to drugs when they enter an urban (nonreservation) culture. The use of alcohol by young Native Americans has received considerable attention, but very little has been done to assess the extent of use of other drugs. A few major surveys have included small numbers of Native Americans, e.g., Strimbu et al. (1973). Although their sample of 20,000 college students included only 76 Native Americans, as a group they were found to have a significantly greater level of drug use than Anglos, Blacks, and Orientals for all drugs in the survey except alcohol.
METHOD A drug use survey was administered to 127 male and 149 female students at a posthigh-school institution which provides training in arts and technical skills. Such institutions are located in urban areas and enroll students from various reservations throughout the country. These young people are bright, capable, and often very talented. The mean age in the group surveyed was 21 with 90% between 18 and 27.
RESULTS A summary of drug use is presented in Table 1. The first column is based on response to, “Have you ever tried (name ofdrug)?” The second column is based on “Have you taken (name ofdrug) during the past two months?” The third column presents the percentage of respondants who saw themselves as moderate, heavy, or very heavy users of a particular drug. Responses to five items for assessing the severity of drug use are listed in Table 2. In studies of similar age groups by the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (1973), Groves (1974), and Strimbu et al., (1973), far less experimentation was reported than among these Native Americans for those drugs on which comparisons are available (Table 3). In this Native American population, beer, liquor, and marijuana are the most popular drugs and are used by a considerable portion of the group. Forty-one percent of these students consider themselves moderate to heavy beer users. More than half of the students presently use
Table 1 Drug Use among Young Native American Adults at an Arts and Technical School
Ever tried (%)
Used in past 2 months (%)
Moderate to heavy user (%)
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
~
95 52 78 31 13 36 6 22 21 70
Beer Wine Liquor Inhalants Cocaine Amphetamines Heroin Barbiturates Hallucinogens Marijuana
84
~~
41 0 20 0 0 6
40 66 4 5 20 1 8 6 59
0 0
1 27
Table 2 Response to Items Intended to Assess Severity of Drug Use
Item
%
Have gotten really drunk Blacked out 3 times Had a "bad trip" Taken combination of drugs Used a needle
42 29 14 15 3
+
Table 3 Percent Who Have Tried a Drug among Several Young Adult Populations
Drug Alcohol Marijuana Amphetamines Barbiturates Hallucinogens Heroin Cocaine Inhalants
National Native Amer- Commission on ican technical Drug Abuse Strimbu et al. institute (%) sample (%) sample (%) 95 70 36 22 21 6 13 31
83 50 24 15 14
2
35" 24 19 15 8
b
b
b
b
4
Groves sample (%) 89 31 14 15 1 I 3 b
"This figure is unusually low and is questionable in view of other percentages reported in this article. bInformation not available.
GOLDSTEIN ET AL.
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
858
marijuana, with 27% using it moderately to heavily. Amphetamine use is also very high, with one out of every five students having used amphetamines in the past 2 months and more than one-fourth seeing themselves as moderate to heavy users. Other drugs are used rarely, but there has been at least some use of every kind of drug mentioned in the survey during the 2 months prior to administration.
DISCUSSION Extent of Drug Use
Physiological drug dependence among these students is probably rare. Heroin is available, but those using it seem to be only experimenting for an occasional high. Barbiturate use is limited to occasional use by only a few students. The major danger of physiological dependence is from alcohol. Given the high level of alcoholism in slightly older Native Americans, there are enough heavy drinkers to suggest that some of these students may already be alcoholics. The items assessing severity of drug and alcohol use (see Table 2) show that a large number of students use alcohoi heavily when they use it. Nearly half of the students have gotten “really drunk” more than three times. Levy and Kunitz (1974) discuss the most common form of drinking among the tribes they studied as being characterized by peer group binge drinking, sometimes called “Indian style” drinking. The data from this survey suggest that drinking “Indian style” may be quite common for many of these young people. The use of amphetamines and cocaine is relatively high. Interviews suggest that the level of cocaine use is real, but that cocaine is very expensive (about $80/g) and is probably not used often enough to lead to dependence. Amphetamine use, however, is sufficiently heavy to conclude that some students are dependent. One of the most striking findings is that 30% of these young adult Native Americans have ‘tried inhalants; however, only 4% used them during the past 2 months, and none see themselves as heavy users. Inhalant use is generally more prevalent among children and young adolescents, often because other drugs are not available to them. The unusually high rate of those who report having “ever tried” inhalants tends to confirm the belief that inhalant abuse is a special problem for younger Native Americans. What is somewhat surprising is that there is any present use of inhalants given the ready availability of marijuana and
DRUG USE AMONG NATIVE AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS
859
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
alcohol. One wonders why inhalants are still in use, and if their use when both alcohol and marijuana are available means that there is a small percentage of Native American young adults who find inhalants particularly attractive for some reason. Patterns of Drug Use
Among the large number reporting amphetamine use, about half used them only once or twice. The others using amphetamines, however, were involved quite heavily with other drugs as well. This pattern accounts for most of the use of cocaine and barbiturates, and about half of the hallucinogen use. This group, about 10% of the students, seems to represent a drug subculture within the school: all use marijuana and alcohol quite heavily; all use amphetamines to some extent, most quite often; and most use other drugs occasionally. Not only are these students involved with drugs, but drugs are directly causing problems for them. Three-fourths have had some problems with school authorities because of alcohol use, and one-fourth because of drug use. Eight percent say that drinking, and 54% that drug use, has prevented them from doing something they wanted to do. About half of the hallucinogen use is accounted for by the general involvement with drugs of the group of students discussed above, but there is some use by others as well. In asking about hallucinogen use, we were careful to separate use of peyote as a sacrament in the Native American Church from “recreational” use. Those students who use hallucinogens just to get high and who are not a part of the subgroup discussed above are only occasional users who limit their use almost entirely to weekends or holidays. Ten percent of the student body is a very large proportion to be so clearly involved in a drug subculture, taking several different drugs. This particular type of school may be attractive to young people who are interested in drugs, or this may be an unusual group in some other way, but there may also be a more fundamental issue. It may show what happens when young Native Americans leave, sometimes for the first time, their relatively isolated environments. They have been living in small towns or villages, going to school only with local people or in boarding schools that draw from a limited region. They have now entered a large urban area, where drugs of many kinds are suddenly available, and where the social pressure to use drugs is high. Young adult Native Americans may have general personal and social adjustment problems that encourage
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
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GOLDSTEIN ET AL.
drug use and/or may lack the kind of experiences that would allow them to resist social pressure to use drugs. There is little solid information showing how to reduce danger from drug use. At a minimum, medical and counseling services should be specially prepared to deal with drug crises at both physical and emotional levels. Education programs, developed and run within Native American traditions, might inform students about dangerous combinations of drugs and drug analysis services, but there are no hard data showing that this approach actually reduces danger. Some special Native American programs have been developed to help those deeply involved with drugs and alcohol. Within different tribes these programs involve “sings,” sweat ceremonies, Native American Church meetings, etc., but their efficacy is yet to be determined. Ideally, prevention would start with young Native Americans in their home communities with inhalants and to susceptibility to later drug involvement. We are now involved in studies to determine what those conditions might be. Efforts should also be made to change the environment at institutions that have this high a level of drug use. Early work might be aimed at reducing peer encouragement to use alcohol and drugs, increasing peer sanctions against dangerous forms of use, and searching for meaningful alternative experiences that provide immediate social and personal reinforcements as potent as getting high. Unfortunately, successful prevention efforts have been rare, and there are no guidelines for accomplishing these goals. Therefore, any programs attempting them must have a strong internal evaluation component. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service: National Institute on Drug Abuse, # 2 R01 DA 01054-02. REFERENCES GROVES, W.E. Patterns ofcollege student drug use and lifestyles. In E. Josephson and E. E. Carroll (eds.) Drug Use: Epidemiological and Sociological Approaches, Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 1974. LEVY, J.E., and KUNITZ, S.J. Indian Drinking. New York: Wiley 1974. National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, Second Report p. 83, March 1973, Fig. 11-4. STRIMBU, J.L., SCHOENFELDT, L.F., and SIMS, 0,s.Drug usage in college students as a function of racial classification and minority group status. Res. Higher Educ. 1: 263-212, 1973.
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
Research Note
Drug Use among Native American Young Adults G. S. Goldstein, Ph.D. Department of Hospitals & Institutions State of New Mexico Sante Fe. New Mexico 87503
E. R. Oetting," Ph.D. Ruth Edwards, B.A. Department of Psychology Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
Velma Garcia- Mason, M.A. University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico 871 12
Abstract
Young adult Native American students at a postsecondary educational institute showed a very high level of use of all drugs when compared with other samples of college age youth. Alcohol, marijuana, and amphetamines were drugs of choice; 31% had tried inhalants although there was little present use; 10% were *To whom requests for reprints should be sent. 855
Copyright @ 1979 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Neither this work nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
GOLDSTEIN ET AL.
856
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
involved in a drug subculture, using multiple drugs relatively heavily. The authors’ interpretation of these findings is either the institution attracts drug users or young Native Americans from relatively isolated environments have higher susceptibility to drugs when they enter an urban (nonreservation) culture. The use of alcohol by young Native Americans has received considerable attention, but very little has been done to assess the extent of use of other drugs. A few major surveys have included small numbers of Native Americans, e.g., Strimbu et al. (1973). Although their sample of 20,000 college students included only 76 Native Americans, as a group they were found to have a significantly greater level of drug use than Anglos, Blacks, and Orientals for all drugs in the survey except alcohol.
METHOD A drug use survey was administered to 127 male and 149 female students at a posthigh-school institution which provides training in arts and technical skills. Such institutions are located in urban areas and enroll students from various reservations throughout the country. These young people are bright, capable, and often very talented. The mean age in the group surveyed was 21 with 90% between 18 and 27.
RESULTS A summary of drug use is presented in Table 1. The first column is based on response to, “Have you ever tried (name ofdrug)?” The second column is based on “Have you taken (name ofdrug) during the past two months?” The third column presents the percentage of respondants who saw themselves as moderate, heavy, or very heavy users of a particular drug. Responses to five items for assessing the severity of drug use are listed in Table 2. In studies of similar age groups by the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (1973), Groves (1974), and Strimbu et al., (1973), far less experimentation was reported than among these Native Americans for those drugs on which comparisons are available (Table 3). In this Native American population, beer, liquor, and marijuana are the most popular drugs and are used by a considerable portion of the group. Forty-one percent of these students consider themselves moderate to heavy beer users. More than half of the students presently use
Table 1 Drug Use among Young Native American Adults at an Arts and Technical School
Ever tried (%)
Used in past 2 months (%)
Moderate to heavy user (%)
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
~
95 52 78 31 13 36 6 22 21 70
Beer Wine Liquor Inhalants Cocaine Amphetamines Heroin Barbiturates Hallucinogens Marijuana
84
~~
41 0 20 0 0 6
40 66 4 5 20 1 8 6 59
0 0
1 27
Table 2 Response to Items Intended to Assess Severity of Drug Use
Item
%
Have gotten really drunk Blacked out 3 times Had a "bad trip" Taken combination of drugs Used a needle
42 29 14 15 3
+
Table 3 Percent Who Have Tried a Drug among Several Young Adult Populations
Drug Alcohol Marijuana Amphetamines Barbiturates Hallucinogens Heroin Cocaine Inhalants
National Native Amer- Commission on ican technical Drug Abuse Strimbu et al. institute (%) sample (%) sample (%) 95 70 36 22 21 6 13 31
83 50 24 15 14
2
35" 24 19 15 8
b
b
b
b
4
Groves sample (%) 89 31 14 15 1 I 3 b
"This figure is unusually low and is questionable in view of other percentages reported in this article. bInformation not available.
GOLDSTEIN ET AL.
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
858
marijuana, with 27% using it moderately to heavily. Amphetamine use is also very high, with one out of every five students having used amphetamines in the past 2 months and more than one-fourth seeing themselves as moderate to heavy users. Other drugs are used rarely, but there has been at least some use of every kind of drug mentioned in the survey during the 2 months prior to administration.
DISCUSSION Extent of Drug Use
Physiological drug dependence among these students is probably rare. Heroin is available, but those using it seem to be only experimenting for an occasional high. Barbiturate use is limited to occasional use by only a few students. The major danger of physiological dependence is from alcohol. Given the high level of alcoholism in slightly older Native Americans, there are enough heavy drinkers to suggest that some of these students may already be alcoholics. The items assessing severity of drug and alcohol use (see Table 2) show that a large number of students use alcohoi heavily when they use it. Nearly half of the students have gotten “really drunk” more than three times. Levy and Kunitz (1974) discuss the most common form of drinking among the tribes they studied as being characterized by peer group binge drinking, sometimes called “Indian style” drinking. The data from this survey suggest that drinking “Indian style” may be quite common for many of these young people. The use of amphetamines and cocaine is relatively high. Interviews suggest that the level of cocaine use is real, but that cocaine is very expensive (about $80/g) and is probably not used often enough to lead to dependence. Amphetamine use, however, is sufficiently heavy to conclude that some students are dependent. One of the most striking findings is that 30% of these young adult Native Americans have ‘tried inhalants; however, only 4% used them during the past 2 months, and none see themselves as heavy users. Inhalant use is generally more prevalent among children and young adolescents, often because other drugs are not available to them. The unusually high rate of those who report having “ever tried” inhalants tends to confirm the belief that inhalant abuse is a special problem for younger Native Americans. What is somewhat surprising is that there is any present use of inhalants given the ready availability of marijuana and
DRUG USE AMONG NATIVE AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS
859
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
alcohol. One wonders why inhalants are still in use, and if their use when both alcohol and marijuana are available means that there is a small percentage of Native American young adults who find inhalants particularly attractive for some reason. Patterns of Drug Use
Among the large number reporting amphetamine use, about half used them only once or twice. The others using amphetamines, however, were involved quite heavily with other drugs as well. This pattern accounts for most of the use of cocaine and barbiturates, and about half of the hallucinogen use. This group, about 10% of the students, seems to represent a drug subculture within the school: all use marijuana and alcohol quite heavily; all use amphetamines to some extent, most quite often; and most use other drugs occasionally. Not only are these students involved with drugs, but drugs are directly causing problems for them. Three-fourths have had some problems with school authorities because of alcohol use, and one-fourth because of drug use. Eight percent say that drinking, and 54% that drug use, has prevented them from doing something they wanted to do. About half of the hallucinogen use is accounted for by the general involvement with drugs of the group of students discussed above, but there is some use by others as well. In asking about hallucinogen use, we were careful to separate use of peyote as a sacrament in the Native American Church from “recreational” use. Those students who use hallucinogens just to get high and who are not a part of the subgroup discussed above are only occasional users who limit their use almost entirely to weekends or holidays. Ten percent of the student body is a very large proportion to be so clearly involved in a drug subculture, taking several different drugs. This particular type of school may be attractive to young people who are interested in drugs, or this may be an unusual group in some other way, but there may also be a more fundamental issue. It may show what happens when young Native Americans leave, sometimes for the first time, their relatively isolated environments. They have been living in small towns or villages, going to school only with local people or in boarding schools that draw from a limited region. They have now entered a large urban area, where drugs of many kinds are suddenly available, and where the social pressure to use drugs is high. Young adult Native Americans may have general personal and social adjustment problems that encourage
Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by QUT Queensland University of Tech on 11/21/14 For personal use only.
8 60
GOLDSTEIN ET AL.
drug use and/or may lack the kind of experiences that would allow them to resist social pressure to use drugs. There is little solid information showing how to reduce danger from drug use. At a minimum, medical and counseling services should be specially prepared to deal with drug crises at both physical and emotional levels. Education programs, developed and run within Native American traditions, might inform students about dangerous combinations of drugs and drug analysis services, but there are no hard data showing that this approach actually reduces danger. Some special Native American programs have been developed to help those deeply involved with drugs and alcohol. Within different tribes these programs involve “sings,” sweat ceremonies, Native American Church meetings, etc., but their efficacy is yet to be determined. Ideally, prevention would start with young Native Americans in their home communities with inhalants and to susceptibility to later drug involvement. We are now involved in studies to determine what those conditions might be. Efforts should also be made to change the environment at institutions that have this high a level of drug use. Early work might be aimed at reducing peer encouragement to use alcohol and drugs, increasing peer sanctions against dangerous forms of use, and searching for meaningful alternative experiences that provide immediate social and personal reinforcements as potent as getting high. Unfortunately, successful prevention efforts have been rare, and there are no guidelines for accomplishing these goals. Therefore, any programs attempting them must have a strong internal evaluation component. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service: National Institute on Drug Abuse, # 2 R01 DA 01054-02. REFERENCES GROVES, W.E. Patterns ofcollege student drug use and lifestyles. In E. Josephson and E. E. Carroll (eds.) Drug Use: Epidemiological and Sociological Approaches, Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 1974. LEVY, J.E., and KUNITZ, S.J. Indian Drinking. New York: Wiley 1974. National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, Second Report p. 83, March 1973, Fig. 11-4. STRIMBU, J.L., SCHOENFELDT, L.F., and SIMS, 0,s.Drug usage in college students as a function of racial classification and minority group status. Res. Higher Educ. 1: 263-212, 1973.
