The Rural Concern

According to a CASA (the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) ‘White paper’ (2002) entitled “No place to hide: Substance abuse in midsize cities and rural America”, the drug crisis is as prevalent on main street as it is in Manhattan.  Study findings indicated that rural eighth graders were twice as likely to use amphetamines and half again more likely to use cocaine than their suburban counterparts   This concern was accentuated by the realization that rural health care facilities are less equipped to deal with the problems that methamphetamine and cocaine use present in the emergency department.  CASA President Joseph Califano Jr. raised the alarm when the study found that rural eighth graders are:

• 34% more likely to smoke marijuana,
• 83% more likely to use crack cocaine,
• 25% more likely to consume alcohol,
• 70% more likely to become intoxicated,
• twice as likely to smoke
• five times more likely to use smokeless tobacco

While other study have disputed this finding (citing statistics indicating that urban use is more problematic) the study made the point that access has become remarkably easy even in remote locations. Since this study was published a great deal of headway has been made in shutting down methamphetamine labs hidden in abandoned farm shelters, and limiting access to cough medication products used to manufacture the addictive substances, but addictions continue to drive behavior in an environment where the teenage battle of the bulge is worse than it ever was.  With the use of methamphetamines comes the propensity for violence according to a carefully done study by Somers et al of the UCLA School of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics and Brown University of Rhode Island.  See www.sciencedirect.com  (2006) Methamphetamine Use Among Young Adults: Health and Social Consequences”