Survey Sheds Light upon Students' Drug Use in the Caribbean

The Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID) has published a comparative analysis of drug use among secondary school students in the Caribbean. The report relies on data that was collected through the use of standardised surveys among students in thirteen Caribbean countries. The report describes the patterns of drug use among 13- to 17-year-olds across the Caribbean including the most widely consumed substances, access to drugs, perception of harm, and harmful use of drugs among other results. The report shows how patterns of drug use are different between male and female students with respect to prevalence, age of first use and other important indicators.

Comparisons with previous studies show that:

• The perception of harm of marijuana is lower while marijuana prevalence has increased
• Cigarette smoking continues to be relatively low
• Alcohol consumption remains high among students and binge drinking is significantly high among students in several countries
• The use of inhalants continues to be high with higher prevalence rates reported by female students