Pubdate: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 1999 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: http://www.theage.com.au/ Author: Maree Curtis, Social Trends Writer HIGH USE OF DRUGS BY LESBIANS: STUDY A disurbingly high rate of drug use by young lesbians has been an unexpected finding in Australia's first national study into young people attracted to members of their own sex. Continuing analysis of the data collected for the National Report on Same Sex Attracted Young People by the National Centre in HIV Social Research at La Trobe University has found that young homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are much more likely to be using illegal drugs than adolescents generally. While this was consistent with overseas studies, the researchers were surprised to find that significantly more young women than men were injecting drugs and using marijuana. A researcher, Ms Deborah Dempsey, said 62 per cent of 750 males and females aged between 14 and 21 who took part in the study had smoked marijuana, compared wirh about 8 per cent in the general youth population. In the study, young women were outsmoking their male counterparts on all scales, with 23 per cent of women and 19 per cent of men using marijuana at least weekly. More alarmingly, 11 percent said they had injected drugs, compared with 1 to 2 per cent of the general youth population. Of those who said they had injected drugs, 15 per cent were women compared with 7 per cent of the young men. “It’s incredibly unusual in terms of the general population and we don’t have the answers at the moment,” Ms Dempsey said. "We need to know more about young women and sexuality. There is less research in this area than for boys." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake