Black, Asian teens abuse alcohol, drugs least

The stereotype that black teens are more inclined to use drugs or alcohol in the US may be refuted, as a study shows they have the lowest likelihood. The rate of alcohol or drug use among black and Asian teenagers is lower than the counterparts of other races in the US, including the whites, Native Americans, Hispanics, and mixed-raced teens, the study concludes after surveying 72,561 teens aged between 12 and 17 in the US. The Native American teens have the highest level of drug or alcohol use, with 48 percent reporting using the substances in the past year. They are followed by the whites, 39 percent, Hispanics,37 percent, and mixed-race teens,36 percent. Blacks, 32 percent, and Asians, 24 percent, come at the bottom of the list, according to the study published Monday in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry. The survey results are out of people's expectation, according to the author Dr. Dan Blazer, professor of psychiatry at Duke University. “What surprised us the most was the relatively lower rate of use among African Americans,” said Blazer, cited by Businessweek, “The public perception is that that’s not the case.”