Tom Rowley
|
|
Alcohol Remains Biggest Rural Substance Problem
While methamphetamine plagues rural communities across the country, alcohol remains a far more prevalent problem. A recent report by Karen VanGundy at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute, shows that alcohol abuse in rural America exceeds illicit drug abuse and that excessive drinking is a serious problem among rural youth, more so than among urban youth. (carseyinstitute.unh.edu)
According to VanGundy, “Alcohol abuse remains the most serious substance abuse issue in rural America, particularly among youths and young adults.”
VanGundy, an assistant professor of sociology, doesn’t downplay the meth problem. She simply reminds us that it isn’t the only deadly game in town. What’s needed, she says, is a comprehensive approach to reduce and treat substance abuse—whether alcohol, methamphetamine or anything else.
The report, based on several national studies, finds that:
- Until the early 1990s, urban and rural youth typically reported drinking at the same rates. Since then, rural drinking has increased to the point that rural kids ages 12-17 are now significantly more likely than urban kids to report consuming alcohol—37 percent versus 34 percent.
- At ages 12 to 13, rural youth are more than twice as likely as urban youth to abuse alcohol.
- At 16 to 17 years old, 13 percent of rural kids abuse alcohol; 10 percent of urban kids do.
- By 20 to 21, the rates have more or less equalized.
Why the higher rates of rural use and abuse? The causes are less than certain—especially for younger kids. Certainly, having parents on the scene reduces the problem. And for those old enough to work, employment helps. (Stimulant abuse among the rural unemployed is seven times that of the urban unemployed.) Unlike its impact on illicit drug use, however, educational attainment makes little difference. Whereas rural drug abuse decreases as education increases, alcohol abuse rates are similar across high and low educational levels. Likewise, rural youth from low-income families were no more likely than those from high-income families to abuse alcohol.
What then? VanGundy cites three possibilities. One, alcohol use and abuse are part of the rural (and urban) societal norm. The adults do it; why shouldn’t we? Two, the kids are bored with “nothing else to do.” Three, rural areas lack many of the preventive and treatment services found in urban areas. The report shows that states with the highest rates of alcohol abuse among youths have the greatest unmet need for alcohol treatment and these states tend also to be the most rural.
My own experience as a rural teenager in the 1970s who sadly and regularly abused alcohol supports all three. Drinking—at dance halls, beer joints, town celebrations and parties—wasn’t merely part of the culture; it permeated the culture. And teenage drinking—illegal though it was—was at best lightly frowned upon and at worst given a hearty slap on the back. As for boredom, whether it was true or not we thought we had nothing better to do on Friday and Saturday nights than to buy a bunch of beer (with fake IDs), sit down by the river and hope we made it home in one piece. Prevention? While it makes me sound like a politician to say this, I do not recall any.
Tragically, those factors led one spring night of our senior year to the deaths of three of my close friends and the near deaths of two others—hit by a drunk driver, himself a teenager. I’d like to say that the murderous event scared us all straight, that the culture changed and that preventive services soon appeared. But none of that happened.
And a call this morning to the local sheriff’s department makes me think things haven’t changed much in 27 years, at least not enough. “Alcohol,” an officer told me, “is just part of an unacceptable norm and is always going to be a big problem.” When I asked her what could be done if the resources were available, she singled out the need for public awareness—in grade school, middle school, high school and college. “Go out and tell the kids everything has a consequence,” she said.
So in honor of Angie, K.P., Lori, Janice and Belinda, that’s what I’m doing.
|
