Contents
The present study found higher rates of drug use and drug use related problems among Hispanic and White students relative to their African American and Asian college peers. Indeed, the highest rates of drug use and drug use related problems were generally among Hispanic students. Our data support earlier research that found Hispanic college students have higher rates of marijuana use as compared to Asian and African-American college students (Bell et al., 1997; Gledhill-Hoyt et al., 2000; Mohler-Kuo et al., 2003). This study examines race/ethnicity and gender differences in drug use and abuse for substances other than alcohol among undergraduate college students. A probability-based sample of 4,580 undergraduate students at a Midwestern research university completed a cross-sectional Web-based questionnaire that included demographic information and several substance use measures.
- But despite Gooch’s long experience, the opioid epidemic recently has brought a level of devastation to the Black community that has shocked him.
- Men typically have higher rates of alcohol, tobacco, or illicit substance dependence.
- Backed by his seven years of social work experience, Valentine examines issues faced by marginalized populations, most often focusing his lens on the experiences of Black and LGBTQIA+ communities.
- For example, Johnston and colleagues found that 39.6% of college men as compared to 29.6% of college women reported using marijuana in the past year.
- Given persistent racial health disparities, it is especially important to consider the effect that race has on the stigmatization of substance use.
Recently, the white mortality rate has remained stable within a narrow range of 10.0 to 12.0 per 100,000 since 2015. When the 2019 mortality numbers are finalized these rates are likely to increase. The mortality rate disparity between African Americans and whites continued in 2019.
Between August 2019 and August 2020, study staff approached 49 hospitalized patients with OUD for participation in OUD MEETS. Twenty-eight of 30 eligible patients enrolled in the program and initiated buprenorphine or methadone. Twenty-seven (96 %) enrolled patients successfully completed hospital treatment. Twenty-three (85 %) patients successfully completed medical treatment at SNF. Thirteen (46 %) enrolled patients had confirmed linkage to OUD treatment post-SNF. One patient left the hospital (4 %) and four patients left SNF (15 %) via PDD. It is a stark reminder that we must remain acutely aware of the racial injustices and systemic inequities that continue to plague underserved communities.
71% of drug overdose deaths among African Americans involved more than one drug. In Minnesota, African Americans and American Indians die of drug overdoses at higher rates than whites. African American Minnesotans are two times more likely to die of a drug overdose than white Minnesotans. American Indian Minnesotans are seven times more likely to die of a drug overdose than white Minnesotans.
Starting medication for opioid use disorder prior to prison release substantially reduces overdose deaths
The “other” opioid category defined above mainly consists of natural and semi-synthetic opioids and non-methadone synthetic opioids. Recent research on the US opioid epidemic has focused on the white or total population and has largely been limited to data after 1999. However, understanding racial differences in long-term trends by opioid type may contribute to improving interventions. OUD MEETS demonstrates feasibility of hospital, SNF, and OTP partnership to integrate MOUD treatment into SNFs, with high rates of completion of medical treatment and low rates of PDD. Future research should find sustainable ways to improve access to MOUD at post–acute care facilities, including through regulatory and policy changes.
An implementation scenario with greater unsupervised iOAT compared to supervised iOAT allows for an increased reduction in overdose and overdose deaths per annum at the same cost, with the additional benefit of increased treatment coverage among people who inject opioids. The age distribution of drug overdose deaths differs between African Americans, American Indians, and whites. For example, in 2015, the face of the opioid epidemic was overwhelmingly white. Blacks and Hispanics collectively accounted for less than 25% of all drug overdose deaths in New Jersey. §§ Dashes indicate that percent change in synthetic opioid involvement in opioid-involved overdose deaths could not be calculated because of unreliable rates or suppression.
Demographic measures in the survey included items asking about gender, race/ethnicity, class year, living arrangement, and fraternity and sorority membership. In January, Governor DeWine signed an executive order creating what is a halfway house the RecoveryOhio Advisory Council. The council was tasked with providing actionable recommendations to improve mental health and substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support services in Ohio.
The distinct age distributions of opioid-involved overdose deaths between the racial/ethnic age groups and different metropolitan areas highlight the heterogeneity that exists among persons who use drugs, illicit drug markets, and risk factors for overdose. Differences in opioid prescribing rates, underlying rates of opioid and other substance use disorders, access to substance use disorder treatment, and the proliferation of IMF in the illicit drug supply might all underlie the unique patterns of opioid-involved overdose deaths observed in this study. Thus, additional efforts are needed to develop and implement prevention, treatment, and response strategies that are tailored to diverse racial/ethnic and age groups within specific community contexts. In addition, more research is needed to explore the underlying drivers of differing overdose risk among racial/ethnic age groups across metropolitan areas.
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Other groups are bringing more effective addiction treatments within prison walls, reducing the chances of recidivism on release. A proposed federal law would make therapy with the commonly used addiction medication methadone less onerous for an impoverished population, as well as less stigmatizing. And Volkow is using her platform at the NIH to highlight the overwhelming research-based evidence for better ways to understand and treat addiction. The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies is a membership organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of alcoholism, substance abuse, and other addictions in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer communities. Many people think addiction is a young person’s problem, but research shows that 25% of all prescribed medications are given to older patients. It’s estimated that the number of adults over age 50 who need substance use treatment will increase 300% from 2000 to 2020.
Among Hispanics, the percentage of opioid-involved overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids ranged from 47.9% in medium/small metro areas to 67.2% in large fringe metro areas. This report is an analysis of disparities based on race in drug overdose deaths within Minnesota. This report does not focus on nonfatal overdose or substance use disorder treatment.
Addiction and Age
Rates of hospitalizations from medical complications of opioid use disorder are rising and many of these patients require post–acute care at skilled nursing facilities . However, access to medication for OUD at SNFs remains low and patients with OUD have high rates of patient-directed discharge and hospital readmissions. African Americans make up about 7% of the population and American Indians make up about 1.5% of the population in the state. Since the total number of African American and American Indian residents in Minnesota is small compared to the number of white residents, it is necessary to look at the rate of overdoses, rather than only the number, to make a fair comparison and to accurately describe the magnitude of the impact. The differences in rates are influenced by many different social determinants of health.
Instead of daily in-person visits, more patients were allowed to use telehealth consultations and take doses home. Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rand Paul of Kentucky have introduced a bill that would make that change permanent. Among other programs and initiatives across the country, alcoholics anonymous these are an indication that drug treatment policy may be headed in a more equitable, evidence-based direction. Paradoxically, that makes prisons and jails—institutions with the most obvious and overt racial disparities—the places with the greatest potential to bring about effective change.
Similar Web survey design and procedures are described in more detail elsewhere (McCabe et al., 2002; McCabe, 2004). But racial disparities have emerged in the application and effectiveness of both measures. A study from RTI International found that Black and Latino intravenous drug users have inequitable access to the medication. Using multiple cause of death data, we calculated age-standardized opioid mortality rates, by race and opioid type, for the US resident population from 1979 to 2015.
About half of people who have a mental illness also experience a substance use disorder and vice versa. As mentioned, most people don’t receive the treatment they need for addiction. Minority populations tend to be less likely to receive substance use treatment. The Surgeon General reports that 20.8 million people (nearly 8% of the total population) meet the criteria for a substance use disorder, but these people can’t be lumped into one group. Substance abuse doesn’t discriminate against age, race demographics, or socioeconomic status.
Overdose Fatality Reviews
The final sample consisted of 4,580 undergraduate students and the demographic characteristics of the random sample closely resembled the characteristics of the overall student population. The proportion of women was slightly higher in the random sample than the overall undergraduate student population (55% vs. 51%) while the racial/ethnic, class year and age distributions between the random sample and the population closely resembled each other. In wave 1, there were 10 states with greater than 20 deaths for African Americans and Whites for every year from 1999 to 2010; during waves 2 and 3, there were an additional 11 states with greater than 20 deaths for African Americans and Whites in every individual year. American/NHOPI young adults aged 26 or older had the highest number of people with alcohol use disorders. 7% of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (1.5 million) aged 12 and older had a substance use disorder in the past year.
Race/Ethnicity and Gender Differences in Drug Use and Abuse Among College Students
For whites, drug overdose deaths occur primarily within the year age groups. Among American Indians, the greatest percentage of deaths has been in the year age group. For African Americans, the year age group has the greatest percentage of deaths. Racial and ethnic minority groups have less access to proven treatments for substance use disorders. This difference is not simply because of a lack of availability of services. Communities with higher capacity to provide care had the highest death rates, and this pattern was even worse for Black and AI/AN people.
We discovered considerable racial differences in drug abuse among college students that have not been well-studied to date. Because racial differences in drug use among college students do not necessarily reflect racial differences in drug abuse, future work is needed to elucidate the underlying causes for the higher rates of drug abuse among Hispanic and White college students. The continued examination of racial differences among young adults is especially important based on the recent increases in past-year prevalence of DSM-IV marijuana use disorders among Hispanic young adults 18 to 29 years of age in the U.S. (Compton et al., 2004). According to the 2003 NSDUH, 38.2% of pharmacologic management of alcohol dependence White young adults 18 to 25 years of age in the U.S. reported any illicit drug use in the past year, followed by African-American (30.6%) and Hispanic (27.5%) young adults . The same race/ethnicity patterns were observed for the past-year prevalence of marijuana use and marijuana use disorders among individuals 18 to 29 years of age according to data from the 2001–2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; Compton et al., 2004). Further, the past-year prevalence of DSM-IV marijuana use disorders increased significantly between 1991–1992 and 2001–2002, with the greatest increases observed among Hispanic and African-American young adults.
American young adults between 18 to 29 years of age have the highest past-year prevalence rates of marijuana use, abuse and dependence relative to older age groups (Compton et al., 2004; Johnston et al., 2005a). In addition, American young adults 18 to 25 years of age report the highest prevalence of illicit use of prescription drugs relative to other age groups (Johnston et al., 2005a; SAMHSA, 2004a). According to the 2003 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health , young adults 18 to 25 years of age report the highest rates of lifetime (60.5%), past year (34.6%) and past month (20.3%) use of any illicit drug. Most notably, the prevalence of past year illicit drug use by college students 18 to 22 years of age was comparable to their same-age peers not attending college (Johnston et al., 2005a; SAMHSA, 2005). While National Vital Statistics System provides the best and most complete data to monitor trends in opioid involved overdose deaths, these data rely on death certificates that are completed by coroners or medical examiners.
Male students were generally more likely to report drug use and abuse than female students. Hispanic and White students were more likely to report drug use and abuse than Asian and African American students prior to coming to college and during college. The findings of the present study reveal several important racial/ethnic differences in drug use and abuse that need to be considered when developing collegiate drug prevention and intervention efforts. Research shows that Black people have a harder time getting into treatment programs than white people do, and Black people are less likely to be prescribed the gold standard medications for substance use therapy. “If you are a Black person and have an opioid use disorder, you are likely to receive treatment five years later than if you’re a white person,” says Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.