viernes, enero 03, 2003
COUNTRY-BOY CRACKHEADS
Dateline: CHICAGO
BAROMETER
A NEW report on drug abuse has turned an old stereotype on its head: young teenagers in rural parts of the United States are more likely to use illegal drugs than those in big cities. Data gathered by the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) say that eighth-graders (mainly 12-to-14-year-olds) living in the country are twice as likely as their urban counterparts to have used amphetamines, including methamphetamine, in the past month.
The same bucolic adolescents are also 34% more likely to have smoked marijuana in the past month, 50% likelier to have snorted cocaine and 83% more likely to have abused crack cocaine. ``It's time for all Americans to recognise that drugs are not only an urban problem,'' says Joseph Califano, CASA's president.
It is not just a matter of illegal drugs. Rural eighth-graders are 29% more likely to drink alcohol (and 70% more likely to get drunk), twice as likely to smoke cigarettes, and nearly five times likelier to chew tobacco. The data are similar for 10th- and 12th-grade students (16-18-year-olds), though urban 10th-graders are more likely than their rural counterparts to take Ecstasy and smoke marijuana.
Methamphetamine has won attention as the scourge of rural America; all the ingredients necessary to ``cook'' the stuff, such as cold medicine, drain cleaner and lithium batteries, can be found at the local supermarket. But other drugs, too, are widely available in rural America. Almost the same percentages of people in rural towns, small cities and large cities find cocaine, crack, heroin and marijuana ``very easy'' or ``fairly easy'' to obtain.
All this will be no surprise to America's policemen. Between 1990 and 1998, drug-law violations increased six times faster in places with fewer than 10,000 people than in cities with more than 250,000. And, of course, where there are needles, there is AIDS. The number of new AIDS cases increased by 82% in rural areas between 1994 and 1999, compared with 59% in large metropolitan areas.
The report notes that the Clinton administration has asked for $1.6 billion to pay for anti-drug operations in Colombia, but that ``drugs come to America by invitation''. It calls for a similar investment at home in drug prevention, drug treatment and law enforcement, particularly in rural areas that have all the problems of big cities but less money to deal with them.
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Dateline: CHICAGO
BAROMETER
A NEW report on drug abuse has turned an old stereotype on its head: young teenagers in rural parts of the United States are more likely to use illegal drugs than those in big cities. Data gathered by the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) say that eighth-graders (mainly 12-to-14-year-olds) living in the country are twice as likely as their urban counterparts to have used amphetamines, including methamphetamine, in the past month.
The same bucolic adolescents are also 34% more likely to have smoked marijuana in the past month, 50% likelier to have snorted cocaine and 83% more likely to have abused crack cocaine. ``It's time for all Americans to recognise that drugs are not only an urban problem,'' says Joseph Califano, CASA's president.
It is not just a matter of illegal drugs. Rural eighth-graders are 29% more likely to drink alcohol (and 70% more likely to get drunk), twice as likely to smoke cigarettes, and nearly five times likelier to chew tobacco. The data are similar for 10th- and 12th-grade students (16-18-year-olds), though urban 10th-graders are more likely than their rural counterparts to take Ecstasy and smoke marijuana.
Methamphetamine has won attention as the scourge of rural America; all the ingredients necessary to ``cook'' the stuff, such as cold medicine, drain cleaner and lithium batteries, can be found at the local supermarket. But other drugs, too, are widely available in rural America. Almost the same percentages of people in rural towns, small cities and large cities find cocaine, crack, heroin and marijuana ``very easy'' or ``fairly easy'' to obtain.
All this will be no surprise to America's policemen. Between 1990 and 1998, drug-law violations increased six times faster in places with fewer than 10,000 people than in cities with more than 250,000. And, of course, where there are needles, there is AIDS. The number of new AIDS cases increased by 82% in rural areas between 1994 and 1999, compared with 59% in large metropolitan areas.
The report notes that the Clinton administration has asked for $1.6 billion to pay for anti-drug operations in Colombia, but that ``drugs come to America by invitation''. It calls for a similar investment at home in drug prevention, drug treatment and law enforcement, particularly in rural areas that have all the problems of big cities but less money to deal with them.
Publicar un comentario
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