LGBT Drug Treatment Blog

Ethnic Minorities

Compared to the total population, alcohol-related motor vehicle fatality rates are particularly high for Native Americans.

African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Alaskan Natives have higher death rates for cirrhosis of the liver relative to the total population.

Alcohol mortality rates are highest for African-American men, even though alcohol use tends to be more moderate for African Americans than for whites or Hispanics.

African Americans are more likely to report using illegal drugs on a weekly basis than any other ethnic group.

Hispanics are most likely to engage in alcohol abuse, followed by whites and African Americans.

Among smokers, whites smoke more cigarettes per day than any other racial or ethnic group. They are also more likely to smoke on a daily basis.

Among high school seniors, 36 % of whites are heavy alcohol users compared to 29 % of Hispanics and 12 % of African Americans.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community

Reliable information about the size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community is not available. However, available studies indicate that GLBT people are more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs than the general population.(1)

The prevalence of tobacco use among gay men and lesbians is dramatically higher than among the general population. In a household-based survey, 41.5 percent of gay men were identified as smokers – compared with 26.6% of men in the general population. Two times as many lesbian women as heterosexual women smoke.

Recent data suggest alcohol use among gay men and lesbians, which had been at alarmingly high rates, has declined over the last two decades. However, both heavy drinking and illicit drug use appear to be prevalent among young lesbians and gay males; gay men and lesbians of all ages report alcohol problems nearly twice as often as heterosexuals; and alcohol consumption rates do not seem to decrease with age, as they do in the heterosexual population.

Few substance abuse studies have looked at bisexual and transgender individuals, so reliable data are not available.

Senior Citizens

Surveys indicate that six to eleven percent of elderly patients admitted to hospitals exhibit symptoms of alcoholism as do 20 percent of elderly patients in psychiatric wards and 14 percent of elderly patients in emergency rooms.

The prevalence of problem drinking in nursing homes is as high as 49 percent in some studies. Late onset alcohol problems also occur in some retirement communities, where drinking at social gatherings is often the norm.

For American women age 60 and over, substance abuse and addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, and psychoactive prescription drugs are at epidemic levels. One report found that women over 59 are susceptible to abuse and addiction to these substances because they get addicted faster when using smaller amounts than any other group.

1.8 million older women are addicted to or abuse alcohol; 2.8 million abuse or are addicted to psychoactive prescription drugs; and 4.4 million smoke cigarettes.

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