Original articleDrug Use Among Homeless Young People in Los Angeles and Melbourne
Section snippets
Sample
This study recruited homeless young people in Melbourne, Australia, and Los Angeles, California. Two criteria for participation were used: (1) the young person was between 12 and 20 years, and (2) they had spent the last 2 consecutive nights away from home (either without their parent's or guardian's permission if under 17 years or had been told to leave). Two cohorts of homeless young people were formed: “newly” homeless and “experienced” homeless. Based on information from providers of
Results
Descriptive data and effects of gender, site, and type (experienced or newly homeless) are presented for: (1) use/nonuse of alcohol and drugs, (2) frequency of use, (3) polydrug use, (4) experience of injecting drugs, (5) drug dependency, and (6) experience with alcohol and drug services. Given the large number of tests, α was set to p < .01 to avoid type 1 errors.
Discussion
As might be expected, there was a high amount of drug use among these young people in the past 3 months, but this tended to vary according to site and time spent homeless. Most were using alcohol and marijuana and a disturbing number were using “harder” illicit drugs such as heroin, amphetamines, crack/cocaine, and LSD/acid. The party drug, ecstasy, was also used by many young people. Alcohol, heroin, amphetamines, sedatives, and methadone were used more Australians than Americans and those who
Conclusions
It is clear from these data that drug use is alarmingly high in both populations sampled in this study, especially among those who had been homeless for longer periods. Despite these similarities, there are differences in the drug use cultures among young people in each city. Any attempts to develop programs that aim to reduce drug use must take account of the prevailing drug cultures that exist at the time and the location at which these programs will be delivered as well as different
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Paul Myers, Judith Edwards, Andrea Witkin, and a team of interviewers for their contributions to this research. The research reported in this paper was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Grant number: MH61185.
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