Problems for the Future? Drug use among vulnerable groups of young people

Abstract

The papers in this journal (issue 5.3) reect the general desire of policy makers and of prevention practitioners to identify children at high risk for drug abuse, with the intention of encouraging interventions to prevent not only drug abuse but also other behaviors and health conditions that are highly associated with drug abuse. As drug abusers are seen as competing for scarce societal resources, prevention is more often mentioned as a cost-effective approach to this problem. The most important aspects of the epidemiology of drug abuse and the prevention of escalating use and onset of other problems are summarized in these six papers. These aspects include: (I) identity of children at risk (Lloyd), (2) the prevalence of drug use found among youth being provided with social and welfare services (Newburn, Powis et al. and Ward) and among homeless youth (Klee & Reid), and (3) preliminary principles for preventive interventions (Newburn, Powis et al., Ward, Klee & Reid and Gilvarry). These papers also point to the lack of concrete information available for this population group due to methodological problems in accessing its members for study to collect information needed to develop effective prevention programs for them. Lloyd's summary article on risk factors associated with drug abuse presents a critical introduction to the categories of factors that he accumulated from the literature. He makes several important points. First, many of the factors found in the literature are based on cross-sectional analyses of data from surveys and in most instances sound case-control methods were not employed. Second, most of these analyses use drug use, most often marijuana or cannabis use, as an outcome. Longitudinal studies by researchers such as Denise Kandel (1980),