How Millions of Americans Suffer from Others' Substance Abuse

Nearly 160 million Americans suffer the impact of others' alcohol and drug use.

The dangers of alcohol and drug use to individuals are widely recognized, but a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs reveals that nearly 160 million Americans report being harmed by someone else's substance use. ()

In a national survey of U.S. adults, researchers found that 34% said they’d ever suffered “secondhand harm” from someone else’s alcohol use--ranging from marriage and family problems to financial fall-out to being assaulted or injured in a drunk-driving accident.

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Millions Harmed by Others' Alcohol and Drug Use

In sheer numbers, that amounts to 113 million Americans who’ve suffered consequences from another person’s drinking, and 46 million who’ve been hurt by others’ drug use. What’s more, there was plenty of “overlap” between those two groups: Of survey respondents reporting secondhand harms from alcohol, 30% said they’d also been impacted by other people’s drug use.

“There are more harms than people think,” said study co-author William Kerr, Ph.D., of the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute, in Emeryville, Calif. “They affect families, relationships and communities.”

It makes sense that risky drinking and drug use have far-reaching consequences, but it’s only in recent years that research has delved into the secondhand harms of alcohol, Kerr said. And little has been known about the secondhand effects of drug use.

Drug Abuse
The use of Drugs for reasons other than its prescribed recommendation, is known as Drug abuse or substance abuse. Drug abuse or substance abuse is initiated by various biological and social factors.

The new findings are based on responses from 7,800 U.S. adults who were surveyed between September 2019 and April 2020--before, Kerr noted, the effects of the pandemic on Americans’ substance use.

The survey asked people if they’d ever experienced a set of specific harms due to someone else’s alcohol or drug use: physical harm, vandalized property, family problems, financial difficulties or involvement in a traffic accident. Far fewer people said they’d been harmed by others’ drug use compared with alcohol use--which is likely because both drinking and alcohol use disorders are much more common than drug use and drug use disorders, Kerr said.

Substance Abuse Disorder
Substance abuse disorder is a dependency on substances that are hazardous when consumed in large quantities.

But, he added, there could also be additional reasons, including the limits of the survey (which asked about secondhand harms from drug use with a single question). The researchers are now conducting a new survey with more detailed questions on harms related to individual drugs.

In the meantime, the current findings highlight a major public health issue: For every person with a substance use disorder, Kerr said, many more may be harmed in some way, to some degree. That, he added, underscores the need to improve people’s access to substance abuse treatment, and the importance of harm reduction efforts--such as preventing people from driving under the influence.

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Reference:

Prevalence and correlates of alcohol and drug harms to others: Findings from the 2020 U.S. National Alcohol Survey - (https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsad.23-00387)

Source-Eurekalert