HIGH USE OF DRUGS BY LESBIANS: STUDY

A disurbingly high rate of drug use by young lesbians has been an
unexpected finding in Australia's first national study into young people
attracted to members of their own sex.

Continuing analysis of the data collected for the National Report on Same
Sex Attracted Young People by the National Centre in HIV Social Research at
La Trobe University has found that young homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered people are much more likely to be using illegal drugs than
adolescents generally.

While this was consistent with overseas studies, the researchers were
surprised to find that significantly more young women than men were
injecting drugs and using marijuana.

A researcher, Ms Deborah Dempsey, said 62 per cent of 750 males and females
aged between 14 and 21 who took part in the study had smoked marijuana,
compared wirh about 8 per cent in the general youth population.

In the study, young women were outsmoking their male counterparts on all
scales, with 23 per cent of women and 19 per cent of men using marijuana at
least weekly.

More alarmingly, 11 percent said they had injected drugs, compared with 1
to 2 per cent of the general youth population.

Of those who said they had injected drugs, 15 per cent were women compared
with 7 per cent of the young men.

“It’s incredibly unusual in terms of the general population and we don’t
have the answers at the moment,” Ms Dempsey said. "We need to know more
about young women and sexuality. There is less research in this area than
for boys."