The primary cost of drug abuse: what Indian youth pay for drugs.

Based on responses to a 1984 survey on a large Indian reservation, conservative estimates are made of the total dollars spent by Indian youths (grades 7 through 12) across the country on drugs and alcohol. The total figure estimated for one year is $8.3 million. These are only out-of-pocket expenditures and do not include other costs associated with substance abuse such as medical care, loss in productivity, accidents, or emotional and social consequences. There have been significant increases in the use of drugs and alcohol among young people across the country over the last 20 to 25 years. Within the last 10 years, reliable surveys have measured the actual amount of use and have kept track of how drug use has been changing. In general, drug and alcohol use have increased steadily in this time, although very recently large national surveys have shown a slight decrease in the levels of adolescent drug and alcohol use (Johnston, O'Malley, & Bachman, 1986; Miller et al., 1983). Despite these decreases, use rates remain high and the lives of many young people are being adversely affected. We have been conducting research for more than 12 years on the patterns of drug use among Indian youth (Beauvais & Oetting, 1987; Beauvais, Oetting, & Edwards, 1985; Oetting & Beauvais, 1985; Oetting, Beauvais, Edwards, Velarde, & Goldstein, 1982; Oetting & Goldstein, 1979). We have found trends very similar to national trends, although reservation Indian youth use drugs more heavily than other American youth. There are some signs that drug and alcohol use among Indian adolescents may also be leveling off; however, the rates are still very high. Much has been written about the emotional and physical dangers, and other consequences of drug use. This article presents one more piece of information that indicates the size of the drug and alcohol problem and the effect it has on Indian communities. From a retrospective study, we have derived estimates of the amount of money Indian young people are spending to buy drugs and alcohol. The importance of these figures are two-fold. First, when money is spent for drugs and alcohol, it is not available to the individual or family for other purchases. A young person may be using food or clothing money for non-essential drugs and alcohol. Second, there are adverse effects on the overall reservation economies. Drugs and alcohol are usually supplied from off-reservation sources, and the dollars spent on them can be a serious drain on reservation resources. AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH VOLUME 2(1), pp. 21-32 American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research Copyright: Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health Colorado School of Public Health/University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (www.ucdenver.edu/caianh) 22 GERALDINE LORETTO, FRED BEAUVAIS, AND EUGENE OETIING The data presented by no means represent the total cost of drug and alcohol use among American Indians. There are many other associated costs, such as increased medical costs for treatment of drug and alcohol problems (including medical care for accidents), loss of work productivity, legal and enforcement costs, etc. In fact, the out-of-pocket dollars are probably only a small part of the total economic impact of drug and alcohol use. Mother limitation of the data is that our figures arerestricted to the money spent on drugs and alcohol among school-aged young people only; if the data included drug and alcohol use among adults as well, the costs would no doubt be much higher.