Substance Use by Canadian Youth - A National Survey of Canadians' Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs - Canadian Addiction Survey (CAS)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction

This report is one of a series of reports from the Canadian Addiction Survey (CAS, 2004). The CAS (2004) was a collaborative initiative sponsored by Health Canada, the Canadian Executive Council on Addictions (CECA)--which includes the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA); Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC); the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM); the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Prince Edward Island Provincial Health Services Authority, and the Kaiser Foundation/Centre for Addictions Research of BC (CAR-BC)--and the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia.

The CAS was one of the most detailed and extensive addictions surveys ever conducted in Canada, with more than 400 unique questionnaire items. This report is a follow-up to the Canadian Addiction Survey (CAS): A National Survey of Canadians' Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs, Prevalence of Use and Related Harms: Detailed Report (Adlaf, Begin and Sawka, 2005). The detailed report provided an overview of the prevalence of alcohol and illicit drugs use in Canada, as well as an examination of the harms experienced by Canadians as a result of such use. While the full report presented some prevalence results for youth, the focus was on national estimates. As such, this report takes a more in-depth look at the use of alcohol and other drugs by youth and young adults aged 15 to 24 as well as the problems they encounter as a result of their use, their reasons for using, and the characteristics associated with such use. The discussions and results will be presented with a focus on youth, and in many instances, comparisons will be made to the general and adult populations.

Health Canada's participation in the CAS was an important initiative within the renewed Canada's Drug Strategy (CDS), announced by the Government of Canada in May 2003. The CDS is a federally coordinated initiative to reduce the harm associated with the use of alcohol and controlled substances. Because most substance use usually begins during the younger years, and literature has demonstrated that the rate of substance use is usually much higher among youth, youth are a target population prioritized under the CDS. Decreasing the number of young Canadians who experiment with drugs is one of the major objectives of the CDS. Youth are at an age when they are required to make many important decisions, including the use of substances; thus, it is important to monitor the prevalence of use and related harms of substance use among this population as well as the factors associated with use and different patterns of use.

The assessment of alcohol and other drug use among youth is important because it is only through such research that we can identify current problems in an attempt to develop intervention and prevention strategies. A key premise of prevention is that the activities need to be based on the best available information on the nature and extent of youth substance use problems (Roberts, McCall, Stevens-Lavigne et al., 2001). Information gathered through surveys such as the CAS provide us with a wealth of data, not just to describe the current situation but also to be in a better position to address it. Age of first use, the proportion of users versus non-users, and differences in gender, age group and region are all examples of key factors essential for developing prevention, intervention and treatment strategies for youth. Since the CAS was one of the most detailed and extensive addiction surveys ever conducted in Canada, as well as the most recent, the current report will examine substance use among youth with a focus on the aforementioned factors in an attempt to provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive picture of the current situation of substance use by Canadian youth.

Overview of Chapters

The following provides a brief description of the chapters contained in the present report.

Chapter 2: Survey Design, Methodology and Analysis

This chapter will discuss the main design, methodology and analysis features of the CAS.

Chapter 3: Alcohol Use and Harms

This chapter will report on five measures of alcohol use by youth, including drinking status, drinking frequency, usual consumption, frequency of heavy drinking and compliance with low-risk drinking guidelines. In addition, this chapter will examine the alcohol harms experienced by youth. It will address three measures indicative of harms or risk of harms: harms to oneself because of one's own alcohol use; harms because of the alcohol use of others; and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) measure of high-risk drinking.

Chapter 4: Cannabis Use and Harms

The focus of this chapter is on the use of cannabis, such as marijuana and hashish, in youth. It will describe the lifetime and past 12 months' prevalence of cannabis use and various concerns and harms experienced by youth as a result of such use.

Chapter 5: Other Drug Use and Harms

This chapter will focus on the use of drugs other than cannabis in youth 15 to 24 years of age. It will present the lifetime and past 12 months' prevalence of eight drug use behaviours: use of cocaine or crack; hallucinogens, PCP or LSD; speed or amphetamines; heroin; ecstasy (MDMA) or other similar drugs; inhalants--glue, gasoline or other solvents; steroids; and injection drug use. This chapter will also examine problems encountered by youth as a result of their use of these various illicit drugs.

Chapter 6: Poly Drug Use

The focus of this chapter is on the different patterns of substance use among youth, such as the combination use of alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drugs. It will present the most prevalent patterns of combination use and examine the impact of different types of substance use on use of other substances.

Chapter 7: Driving and Substance Use

This chapter will examine the prevalence of driving under the influence of alcohol and cannabis by youth and explore the characteristics that are associated with such behaviours.

Chapter 8: Changes Across Time

Trends in the prevalence of use and related harms of alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drugs by youth will be examined using data from the 1989 National Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey and the 1994 Canada's Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey.