NCJ Number
214392
Journal
Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse Volume: 4 Issue: 3/4 Dated: 2005 Pages: 135-152
Date Published
2005
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study presents findings from a pilot study of drug use and environmental conditions for 31 Southeast Asian youths in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Abstract
Smoking marijuana was found to be a pervasive and normative behavior as a means of coping with the stresses in family and community life. Eighty-one percent of respondents reported having ever used marijuana. Approximately one-third of the respondents had current or prior involvement with the juvenile and/or adult justice systems. Marijuana smoking was apparently part of the ghetto lifestyle of rap music and crime that was popular among ethnic minority peers with whom many Southeast Asian youths identified. In perceiving themselves as part of a ghetto subculture of ethnic minorities, Southeast Asian youth viewed themselves as having lifestyles different from their parents and mainstream American society. Social interactions with marijuana-smoking peers apparently were a social ritual of interaction with other youths with similar experiences of stress and sense of alienation from life outside the ghetto. One suggestion for future research is that drug-using Southeast Asian youth in America be compared with Southeast Asian youth in the same neighborhoods who do not use drugs, in order to identify the risk factors that contribute to drug use. All potential respondents, who were recruited through program coordinators and counselors who worked with Southeast Asian youths, were screened for self-reported drug use prior to being selected for an interview. A total of 31 drug-involved youth living in 2 low-income predominantly ethnic minority neighborhoods were interviewed. Nearly half the respondents were female, and over half were under age 18. 1 table, 5 notes, and 44 references