Cannabis Use Increasing Among Black Youth

Alcohol and Drugs Forum

Black youth splurging on cannabis

YOUNG Aborigines in Arnhem Land are spending up to two-thirds of their income on cannabis after the drug exploded in popularity across Top End indigenous communities in the late 1990s.

A new study into the high rate of cannabis use in Arnhem Land found that drug-related financial pressures had led to widespread violence and intimidation among families, with Aboriginal communities spending about $1 in every $6 on cannabis.

The study by the Menzies School of Health Research found cannabis had also added to existing patterns of other substance abuse in Arnhem Land, including petrol-sniffing and amphetamines.

It follows a previous report by the same group of researchers that found up to 70 per cent of Aboriginal men and 30 per cent of women aged between 13 and 36 had started smoking cannabis in the late 90s.

"That rate is considerably higher than in the rest of Australia," said the main author of the study, Alan Clough.

"The prevalence of cannabis use is much wider in Aboriginal communities, and has been established much more rapidly than elsewhere in Australia."

The research, to be published in the Drug and Alcohol Review in December, was based on interviews with 336 people aged between 13 and 36 in two Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land.

The study details how drug dealers are making a killing in the communities by charging about 12 times more than they would in other parts of the Northern Territory.

A small packet of cannabis cost about $50 and there were no guarantees about how much would be inside.

"The dealers have enormous flexibility to charge what the market is prepared to pay," Mr Clough said.

The study says most of the young drug users in Arnhem Land bought at least one $50 packet of cannabis each week, spending between 31 per cent and 62 per cent of their average weekly income of $160.

Cannabis users also were less likely to participate in education or training programs and were more likely to suffer weight loss and other health problems. The study also notes concerns about the increased possibility of alcohol-related suicide when combined with cannabis use.

It reveals that more than half the cannabis users aged under 20 had a history of petrol sniffing. Mr Clough said further work was needed to determine whether cannabis use had exacerbated the health problems suffered by petrol-sniffers.

"There's really no other situation like it where people have been using inhalants for the last few years, and then along came cannabis," he said.

But Mr Clough said he was encouraged by recent anecdotal evidence that suggested the explosion of cannabis use in remote Aboriginal communities had reached its limit.

"We are possibly over the peak of the epidemic," he said. "People are telling me that they are either starting to slow down or abstaining."

The research comes as the territory Government prepares to table this week a major report into substance abuse across the territory.

The Government has announced $10 million would be spent over five years to implement the recommendations of the long-awaited report.

"We can no longer *****-foot around these issues," Community Services Minister Marion Scrymgour said.

- The Australian

Obviously the blacks referred to in that ^ article are Australian Aborigines, but I'd imagine you would have the same problem with young black people in America.

young everyone.

Yeah of course, if it's a problem in America, it must be with the blacks. OR the mexicans, can't forget them, they are the ones bringing it in after all, selling it to the blacks you know. ITs a conspiracy.

shoot most of the weed around here comes from canada and is sold by white people

YOu know thougght it's not really the pot smoking minorities that worry me (although around where I live it's mainly mid class whites that smoke it) it's the coke and meth and x and heroin addicted twikers of the upperclass that does.

Upperclass drug users of any race are usually harmless though. It's the lowerclass people who can't afford to support their habits that are mugging and bashing people and breaking into cars to steal your stereo that are the problem.

You know I knew a guy. HIs stepdad is the richest guy in Asheboro. He actually owns most of it. And this guy actually rented out his new volkswagon bettle to a guy for an hour for 20 bucks so he could buy a crack rock. hehe how pathetic. Needless to say he never saw his car again.