Ethnic differences in substance use and alcohol-use-related mortality among first generation migrants to England and Wales

Epidemiological studies among migrant ethnic groups are potentially important as a way to provide insight into the relative importance of genetic, cultural, and socioeconomic factors in the etiology of substance use disorders. This paper summarizes prior United Kingdom studies of the prevalence of substance-use-associated problems in different ethnic groups before analyzing trends in recent mortality data by country of birth. On this evidence, rates of alcohol-related mortality may be marginally higher for those born in the Caribbean than for the native British, but are substantially raised for those born in Ireland and the Indian subcontinent. There is some indication that rates for the Caribbean and possibly the Irish groups have risen more rapidly than for the national population over a 12-year period. These difference in mortality rates seem to have arisen for complex reasons.(AU)

A pilot study of alcohol and drug-related traffic accidents and death in two Jamaican parishes, 1991

This study is a preliminary effort to document the role of drugs in motor vehicle accidents as it examines the presence of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine in blood samples of thirty-one motor vehicle fatalities. The study identified that males (90.3 percent) and pedestrians (41.9 percent) were killed most often. Evidence of alcohol intake was found in 77.5 percent of the fatalities and 35.5 percent had alcohol levels above the legal acceptable limits. Traces of marijuana were found in 22.5 percent and a combination of alcohol and marijuana in 22.5 percent of the victims (AU)

From Ganja to crack: Caribbean participation in the underground economy in Brooklyn, 1976-1986. Part 1. Establishment of the marijuana economy

The involvement of Caribbean youth in drug distribution (marijuana from the mid-1960s to 1981; cocaine hydrochloride powder and crack from 1981 to 1987, the time of writing) throughout the Circum-Caribbean area and in North America is described. Social, economic, and cultural outcomes of these engagements are highlighted, and the relationship between the underground economy of drugs and the corporate, capitalist economy is explored. Responding to high rates of unemployment and to other problems of migrant adaptation, young Caribbean African males established a mutlimillion dollar marijuana (ganja) trading network which linked cultivators on the islands with exporters/importers and street-level distributors in North American cities. By 1976, its participants had become Rastafarians, or followers of an ideology of self-reliance and indigenous development. Following its precepts, they reinvested marijuana revenues to revive cottage industry and agriculture. In Caribbean or minority neighbourhoods, therefore, marijuana was a "positive vibration" and its distribution were lionized.(AU)

The cocaine body packer syndrome

This reports documents the medical conditions associated with toxicity following ingestion of cocaine packaged for transportation. Awareness of this syndrome is important in view of the trafficking of illicit drugs in the region (AU)

Co-ordinated countermeasures of Caribbean countries against the illicit drug traffic: recent developments and prospects

The illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances presents a growing threat to the Caribbean countries and territories. The geographical location of the Caribbean subregion between the areas in South America producing illicit drugs and lucrative illicit markets in North America and Europe is an important factor contributing to an increasing involvement of the subregion in illicit drug trafficking operations. In addition, the archipelagic configuration of many of the countries and territories of the Caribbean makes it easier for traffickers to escape law enforcement action, thus providing a further stimulus to international drug trafficking. The Caribbean Governments have therefore initiated law enforcement countermeasures to combat drug trafficking and taken legal and administrative action to prevent and eradicate illicit cultivation of narcotic crops, as well as to prevent and reduce illicit demand for drugs. The Government have also made increasing efforts to improve international and bilateral co-operation to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse. The decisive efforts of Caribbean Governments, however, are impeded, on the one hand, by the limited availability of trained professional manpower and of the technical and economic resources required to combat drug trafficking effectively, and, on the other hand, by the superior financial and technical capacity of the international drug trafficking organizations. The provision of technical and financial assistance by the international community to the countries and territories of the Caribbean is therfore needed to help overcome these constraints and to enable them to cope with the increasing drug problems in the subregion.(AU)

Illicit traffic and abuse of cannabis in Canada

In 1984 cannabis derivatives, in particular marijuana, hashish and liquid hashish, continued to be the most readily available drugs of abuse in Canada. Marijuana originating in Colombia decreased on the illicit marijuana market in Canada from an estimated 45 percent in 1983 to 30 percent in 1984, but it remained the largest source of marijuana supply. Marijuana originating in Thialand remained at approximately the same level (20 percent) in 1984 as in 1983, while marijuana of Jamaican origin increased its share in the illicit market from 10 percent in 1983 to 20 percent in 1984. Approximately 10 percent of marijuana on the illicit market originated in Canada, 10 percent in Mexico, and 10 per cent in the United States of America. In 1984 an estimated 85 percent of hashish on the illicit market in Canada originated in Lebanon (55 percent in 1983), 10 percent in India or Pakistan (31 percent in 1983) and 5 percent in Jamaica (2 percent in 1983). Illicit shipments in tonnes of hashish originating in Lebanon made this the dominant source of supply of the drug. Liquid hashish originating in Jamaica shared 88 percent of the illicit market of this drug in Canada during 1984, while 10 percent of the drug originated in Lebanon and 2 percent in Canada. In 1984 an estimated 40 percent of smuggled marijuana entered the illicit market in Canada by air and approximately the same by sea, while 20 percent was smuggled over land. During the same year, hashish was smuggled into Canada primarily by sea, while air accounted for 5 percent and land for 1 per cent only. Liquid hashish, in contrast, entered Canada primarily by air, and only 9 percent by land and 1 percent by sea (AU)