Report Says Teen Substance Abuse Higher in Rural Areas

February 2000

---

Smoking, drinking and drug use among young teenagers is higher in rural America than in the nation’s large urban centers, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Released in January, the report titled No Place to Hide:Substance Abuse in Mid-Size Cities and Rural America is the first comprehensive assessment of substance abuse by population centers, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), which undertook the study.

While adult drug use is about equal in all communities, the CASA study concluded that compared to their urban counterparts, eighth graders living in rural communities are more than twice as likely to smoke cigarettes, 34% likelier to smoke marijuana, 83% likelier to use crack cocaine, 29% likelier to drink alcohol, 70% likelier to have been drunk, and 104% likelier to use amphetamines, including methamphetamine.

The report was funded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.According to a CASA press statement, its analysts used previously unreleased data from the 1999 Monitoring the Future Study and special data runs from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s Office of Applied Studies, as well as state and other database and conducted interviews with substance abuse experts and local officials.

The CASA release also notes that mid-size cities and rural areas are “less equipped to deal with the consequences” of the rise in substance abuse. Available on-line at: http://www.casacolumbia.org/publications.