Study says alcohol abuse rising
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
The number of Hawai'i residents who needed treatment for drug and alcohol abuse increased nearly five percent to 82,000 people from 1995 to 1998, according to the latest survey released yesterday by the state Department of Health.
Advertisr library photo • May 26, 1993
And while illegal drugs like crystal methamphetamine, heroin and hallucinogens normally draw the headlines, the most damaging substance being abused in Hawai'i is alcohol, according to Elaine Wilson, chief of the department's alcohol and drug abuse division.
State Health Director Bruce Anderson said drug and alcohol abuse is preventable.
Alcohol abusers in Hawai'i numbered 67,000 in 1998, or 6.7 percent of the population, compared to 57,000 in 1995, according to the new Hawai'i Substance Abuse Adult Telephone Survey, Wilson said.
The survey, in which 5,050 adults were called, was released yesterday at a press conference at the Health Department.
Researchers have been analyzing the data since the survey, officials said.
Wilson said she would not downplay the problems created by illegal drugs, but said the sheer number of problem drinkers makes them one of the most challenging populations for prevention and treatment.
"These (alcohol abusers) are the people who kill other people when they drive, who are losing their jobs, who are involved in domestic violence and whose homes are chaotic for children," Wilson said.
State Health Director Bruce Anderson said drug and alcohol abuse are the greatest preventable cause of death and illness in Hawai'i.
The statistics do not bode well for the future: The greatest increase in heavy use of alcohol (3 drinks or more every day for 30 days, or five drinks at least once at one sitting in the same period) is among young females, Wilson said, nearly a third of whom now abuse alcohol.
That's up from just a fifth of young women 18 to 24 years of age using alcohol heavily in 1995, the study said.
And adults under the legal drinking age, 18 to 20 years old, report the highest percentage of heavy alcohol use, according to D. William Wood, the University of Hawai'i sociologist who was the principal investigator for the study.
"This is a problem that is not going away," he said. "The news is not real good."
Wilson said increasing alcohol abuse in Hawai'i is counter to a national trend. She added that prevention is the key to reducing drug and alcohol problems, and challenged the community to step up "counter-advertising" campaigns to make young people, in particular, aware of the dangers of alcohol.
Hawai'i continues to lead the nation in crystal methamphetamine use, about 15 to 20 percent higher than national numbers, a distinction it has held since about 1996, Wilson said. In 1998, an estimated 8,100 adults needed treatment for use of "ice," compared to 6,200 in 1995, she said.
Heroin experimentation has tripled to an estimated 8,100 adults, two-thirds of whom had used heroin more than once or twice. Increases were greatest among young adults.
Marijuana use remains high in Hawai'i, with almost five percent of the population involved in frequent use, spiking to as high as eight and nine percent on the Big Island and Kaua'i, respectively, the study showed.
The only illegal drug for which there was a substantial decline in both use and treatment needs for all age, sex and ethnic groups was cocaine, the study indicated.
Hawaiians and Caucasians are the leaders in substance abuse, compared to other ethnic groups, the study said.
