Pubdate: Thu, 02 Apr 2009
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2009 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Janet French
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

POVERTY INFLUENCES DRUG USE: SURVEY

It's being poor -- not any kind of genetic or cultural tendency -- 
that leads more aboriginal youth to drink alcohol and smoke 
marijuana, a new Saskatoon study has found.

The study, to be published today in the journal Paedeatric Child 
Health, found after statistically eliminating risk factors such as 
poverty, aboriginal kids were 20 per cent less likely to abuse 
alcohol than their Caucasian counterparts.

"When we're dealing with government agencies, we tend to walk away 
from service delivery when we know that things are associated with 
aboriginal cultural status because we believe that there's some sort 
of genetic trait that's pre-disposing them to addictions behaviour," 
said the study's lead author, Mark Lemstra.

Lemstra is the director of research and evaluation for the Saskatoon 
Tribal Council, which represents seven First Nations in the Saskatoon 
area. Public health researchers at the Saskatoon Health Region were 
also involved in the study.

The data comes from surveys distributed to all Saskatoon public and 
Catholic school students in grades 5 through 8 in 2007. The survey 
results, which were initially published in June 2007, showed kids who 
went to schools in poor neighbourhoods were more likely to be 
bullied, have mental health problems, have a teen pregnancy or a 
sexually transmitted infection or battle with addictions than the 
average Saskatoon kid. It also found students in wealthy 
neighbourhoods fared better than average.

This most recent analysis of the responses from the 4,093 kids delved 
more deeply into kids' use and abuse of marijuana and alcohol, 
questioning whether being aboriginal prompted kids to abuse substances.

Before statistical adjustments, 16.7 per cent of aboriginal children 
reported abusing alcohol compared to 5.4 per cent of Caucasian kids.

About seven times more aboriginal kids than white kids said they'd 
used marijuana in the past year.

But when researchers compared poor kids to poor kids, and rich kids 
to rich kids, racial differences began to fade away. Slightly more 
than 30 per cent of poor aboriginal youth had abused alcohol, 
compared to slightly less than 30 per cent of poor white kids. 
Two-and-a-half times as many poor aboriginal kids had tried pot 
compared to white kids.

Lemstra thinks the results mean society should provide mental health 
and addictions workers in schools with low-income students. Wealthier 
families will often turn to private counsellors and low-income 
residents can't afford that choice, he says.

"Income is preventable and aboriginal cultural status is not," 
Lemstra said. "This puts this back into the hands of government, 
saying, 'Just wait a second . . . this is preventable. And what's our 
appropriate social policy going to be in order to prevent drug and 
alcohol abuse in young children?' "

Lemstra said the results also suggest the need for more social 
supports such as affordable housing, because when kids are hungry, or 
living in inadequate shelter, they lose hope. When they lose hope, 
they're more likely to turn to drugs and alcohol.

The directors of the public and Catholic school divisions will also 
release a statement today that says addressing poverty will improve 
students' academic performances.

"This demonstrates that risk behaviours in youth are associated with 
a number of preventable risk factors, including child poverty," say 
directors George Rathwell of the public division and Bev Hanson of 
the Catholic division.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom