Hispanics And Drug Use, In The United States

Hispanics in the United States are a large, growing, diverse group. More precisely, 1990 U.S. Census figures put the total at 22 million—of these, 63 percent are Mexican in origin, 11 percent Puerto Rican in origin, and 5 percent Cuban in origin. These three groups are the largest, yet another 14 percent of Hispanics are from the various Central and South American countries; still another 8 percent are classified as "other Hispanic" by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. In this essay the terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably. Hispanic is commonly used in official statistics, and Latino is more widely used within the population itself.

The rapid growth of the Latino population within the United States also is noteworthy. It grew by 53 percent between 1980 and 1990. A high birth rate and continuous new immigration fuels this growth.

On average, Hispanics are younger than other minorities and other American population groups. When youthfulness is combined with POVERTY or discriminatory practices, the result sometimes is a disproportionate degree of conflict with law enforcement, especially in connection with drug abuse and drug dealing. The media coverage of these conflicts may lead many into a prejudicial belief about Latinos and drug use.

Although there are many notable exceptions, most Hispanics live in cities in the United States and, lacking other options, they are steadily crowding into the poorest areas of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other large cities. In 1990, 25 percent of Latinos in the United States lived in poverty compared with 31 percent of black families and 13 percent of all other Americans. Poor education, difficulty with the English language, and urban concentration can compound this impoverishment—as it has for the other immigrant minorities in the United States—thereby contributing to the complexity of modern urban problems that they must face daily.

All segments of this highly diverse group are changing rapidly. Documented and undocumented new immigration combined adds about 500,000 arrivals each year, and this flow is increasing. Many of the newcomers crowd into old barrios, and this reduces the quality of life for older residents. Great pressure is therefore exerted on local educational services, health resources, job sources, and job-training services—a pressure that is compounded by problems of acculturation. Many Mexican-American communities predate the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, but other Latino communities have become established in significant numbers only since World War II. Puerto Ricans, for example, settled mostly in the large cities of the Rust Belt in the late 1940s and early 1950s, forming a particularly large concentration in New York City. Like Mexican Americans (Chicanos), they have been sharply affected by recent shifts in the American economy that relegate poorly educated workers to poorly paid service jobs. Central and South Americans are found in diverse locations, with concentrations in New York, Houston, and Los Angeles, tending to work at the bottom of the labor market. Cubans, who are concentrated primarily in Miami, have been helped both by a vigorous enclave economy (with Cubans owning many of the enterprises and hiring fellow Cubans) and by Miami's emergence as a center for Latin American trade.

HISPANICS AND ILLICIT DRUGS

Latinos often are typecast as drug users (see Helmer, 1975). Such stereotypes persist partly because there is little research information. National statistics about Hispanics mask important variations within the population, not only in ethnicity but in class and culture. Drug problems of the community are treated principally as criminal phenomena, and indeed, in many states a disproportionate number of Latinos are imprisoned for drug-related offenses. The context for drug use is little studied.

What then is really known about drug use by Hispanics? Specifically, 1991 figures from the annual survey of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) show that Hispanics are generally less likely to use drugs in their lifetime than either blacks or the white-majority population. However, Hispanics are most likely to have used COCAINE, and next most likely (after blacks) to have used CRACK cocaine. National surveys do not report on HEROIN, an illicit drug that has posed major problems for Latinos, particularly in New York and the Southwest. Heroin use has been studied in several southwestern communities, in particular in the context of peer group and FAMILY in Los Angeles barrios.

The aggregate figures also conceal significant subgroup differences. Puerto Ricans are especially likely to use cocaine, for example, and Cubans are notably less likely to use any drug. (However, clinical data indicate that Cuban drug use is actually higher than survey data show.)

The aggregate figures conceal geographic differences as well. Studies of persons arrested for crimes, for example, show that more than two-thirds of Hispanic arrestees in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and San Diego were using drugs but that proportions were far lower in most other cities (U.S. Department of Justice, 1991). Finally, drug-use patterns may change rapidly, even in a high-risk population: for example, 68 percent of San Antonio's Hispanic arrestees were using some drug in 1988, but by 1991 only 47 percent were, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures (1990). Glick (1990) has analyzed the shifting drug-use patterns in Chicago's Puerto Rican community.

Differences in drug use by males and females are sharper for Hispanics than for other ethnic or cultural groups. Mexican American and Puerto Rican boys and girls are socialized very differently to alcohol and drug use—that is, there is more parental and community disapproval for girls and more permissiveness for boys. Yet research on drug use among Hispanic women is scarce. Among the available research, of particular interest is the finding that sedatives and prescription drugs are used differently by women than they are by men (Gonzalez & Page, 1991). There is also research showing that most female heroin addicts usually begin to use heroin with a male friend, spouse, or common-law partner, thus suggesting that the use depends on a relationship. Hispanic women appear to be greatly influenced by traditional ideas about the role of women, even under the pressures of urbanization, acculturation, and poverty (Moore, 1990).

As to adolescents, the most susceptible group, there is little information about how adolescent Hispanic groups differ from other adolescent groups in drug use. National surveys of high school seniors discover only small differences, but the surveys omit dropouts, who are often the adolescents most at risk, and Hispanic adolescents have very high dropout rates. Most studies confirm that the same risk factors that are important for other youth are important for Hispanics: above all, a disruptive family environment; availability of drugs; peer influences; and patterns of unconventional behavior (such as low school achievement, rebelliousness, early sexual activity). These influences (plus the degree of acculturation and individual judgments of the adolescent) seem to be related, in a general way, with beginning drug use and a steady use of drugs (Booth, Castro, & Anglin, 1990). One notable fact is that gender differences are less significant for adolescent Hispanics than they are for adult Hispanics (Gilbert, 1985).

A special factor that affects Latinos is the overriding importance in the culture of the family. This influence has both positive and negative effects. The extended family among Puerto Ricans in New York may limit drug use by protecting and controlling youngsters in both single- and two-parent households (Fitzpatrick, 1990). In Cuban families, by contrast, illicit drug use may occur when the family structure is severely disrupted, often by the trauma of refugee migration, and researchers argue that the very cohesiveness of the Cuban family may be associated with parental overprotectiveness and adolescent rebellion, sometimes accompanied by drug use as a symptom (Rio et al., 1990).

Recent research suggests that Hispanic clients achieve only mixed success in treatment, but that finding needs qualification, because of the limitations of available treatment programs. Because of poverty and residence in blighted areas, a disproportionate number of Latino heroin users, for example, are enrolled in programs that simply administer blocking drugs (e.g., methadone), with virtually no other treatment. Urban drug treatment programs generally face chronic shortages of money and personnel. When drug abusers do get access to broader treatment, failure can often be blamed upon the absence of culturally sensitive therapies (Rio et al., 1990). Fitzpatrick (1990) has suggested that Puerto Ricans in New York City show an "extraordinary" ability to cope with a community saturated with drugs and that efforts should be made to build on this ability.

HISPANICS AND ALCOHOL

Among Hispanic and many other groups, ALCOHOL use has been easier to study than the use of illicit drugs; many of its patterns are similar to and may shed light on drug use. As they do with drugs, Hispanics use less alcohol over their lifetimes than do "Anglos" (i.e., non-Hispanic white U.S. inhabitants in general, not just those of English ancestry), and their usage is only very slightly more than that of blacks. Again as with drugs, there are sharp gender differences in alcohol use, which are especially noteworthy among immigrants. Among Mexican Americans, the gap between male and female drinking narrows but never disappears in succeeding generations, and much recent research focuses on this acculturation effect, so critical in a large new immigrant population (Canino, 1994). Among younger women, the narrowing gap seems to reflect both acculturation and upward social mobility. Even within one city, Mexican-American drinking habits vary greatly by class (Trotter, 1985). But Gilbert found that Mexican Americans in California also speak of family, financial, and job problems as factors in abusive drinking; they tend to recognize alcoholism not as a medical problem but as a failure of will (Gilbert, 1985). Certainly there is no one set of beliefs, behaviors, and norms associated with Latinos and drinking. Lifestyle diversity within Latino subgroups suggests the need for a corresponding diversity of treatment approaches. The failure of such standard treatments as ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS among Hispanics in certain areas should be noted.

Finally, as noted before in regard to drugs, there are important differences in drinking behavior between subgroups of Hispanics. Mainland-dwelling Puerto Ricans' use of both alcohol and drugs is comparatively high wherever studied (Gordon, 1985). Pentecostal church groups have had notable success in influencing the drinking behavior of some Puerto Ricans, although some clinicians have expressed the view that Puerto Ricans are reluctant to use treatment services. Cuban drinking patterns are generally moderate: Cultural values of self-control forbid discernible drunkenness for both men and women. With increasing acculturation, there is gradually increasing alcohol usage but reduced reliance on minor TRANQUILIZERS by Cuban women. All the (scanty) information available on the subject stresses the importance of individual ethnic experience.

(SEE ALSO: ; Families and Drug Use; High School Senior Survey; Inhalants: Extent of Use and Complications)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AUSTIN, G. A., & GILBERT, M. J. (1989). Substance abuse among Latino youth. Prevention Research Update, 3, 1-28.

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CANINO, G. (1994). Alcohol use and misuse among Hispanic women. International Journal of the Addictions, 29, 1083-1100.

FITZPATRICK, J. P. (1990). Drugs and Puerto Ricans in New York City. In R. Glick & J. Moore (Eds.), Drugs in Hispanic communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

GILBERT, M. J. (1985). Mexican Americans in California: Intercultural variation in attitudes and behavior related to alcohol. In L. A. Bennett & G. M. Ames (Eds.), The American experience with alcohol. New York: Plenum.

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HELMER, J. (1975). Drugs and minority oppression. New York: Seabury Press.

MOORE, J. (1990). Mexican American women addicts. In R. Glick & J. Moore (Eds.), Drugs in Hispanic communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

RIO, A., SANTISTEBAN, D., & SZAPOCZNIK, J. (1990). Treatment approahces for Hispanic drug-abusing adolescents. In R. Glick & J. Moore (Eds.), Drugs in Hispanic communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

TROTTER, R. (1985). Mexican-American experience with alcohol: South Texas examples. In L. A. Bennett & G. M. Ames (Eds.), The American experience with alcohol. New York: Plenum.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. (1990). Drug use forecasting: 1988 drug use forecasting annual report. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. (1991). Drug use forecasting. Drugs and crime (1990 Annual Report). Washington. D.C.: National Institute of Justice.

JOAN MOORE