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Faith: The Anti-Drug - information for church and educational leaders about drug prevention and the challenges that youth face today.  What can you do to make a difference? 

June 2, 2005

ONDCP Shows That Regular Church Attendance Can Reduce Risk for Future Drug Use

Youth who regularly attend and participate in religious services are less likely to become heavy cocaine users than those who don’t, according to new research from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The findings are nothing new for prevention experts, who have long known that active church participation can lead to positive health outcomes for youth.

The ONDCP found that adolescents and young adults who attended religious services at least twice a month were one-third less likely to become heavy cocaine users. The findings were part of an analysis of the Department of Labor’s National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The ONDCP identified early predictors of heavy drug use, including frequent marijuana use, school suspension and criminal occupations. These findings were published in a publication entitled Predicting Heavy Drug Use Results of a Longitudinal Study, Youth Characteristics Describing and Predicting Heavy Drug Use by Adults, which is available at www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/predict_drug_use/.

Previous national studies have shown that religion, church attendance and spirituality can play a key role in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. For example, a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that teens who never attend religious services are twice as likely to drink, more than twice as likely to smoke, three times as likely to use marijuana and four times as likely to use illicit substances, than those who attend at least weekly.

“Consistent religious practices, such as frequent attendance of church, are a proven protective factor for America’s youth,” explained Eduardo Hernandez-Alarcon, Deputy Director of Dissemination and Coalition Relations for CADCA’s National Coalition Institute.

Hernandez-Alarcon said not only do religious activities put youth in contact with caring adults, they also offer youth a safe place to create, socialize and participate in society. “It gives youth a place to go and to be, so they don’t feel like an outsider,” he noted. Religious activities also offer positive activities and volunteer opportunities, and often promote a belief system that disapproves of drug use.

Other benefits of religious participation were noted in the Monitoring the Future survey, which found that youth who attend church regularly are more likely to disapprove of drug use and are less likely to socialize with people who use drugs. “This can influence norms and create positive peer influence,” Hernandez-Alarcon said.

Other trends identified by the ONDCP as potentially leading to future heavy drug use include:

• Youth who wait longer before their first use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine or crack are less likely to become heavy cocaine users.
• Those who smoked marijuana more than 50 times as adolescents are more than six times as likely to become heavy cocaine users as those who did not smoke marijuana as adolescents.
• Young male drug users are almost twice as likely as female drug users to become heavy cocaine users.
• Those who were suspended from school are one and one-half times more likely to become heavy cocaine users as those who were not suspended from school.
• Individuals reporting a significant amount of illegal income as adolescents are more than two times more likely to become heavy cocaine users than those who had no illegal income as adolescents.
• Those selling hard drugs during adolescence are twice as likely to become heavy cocaine users as those who did not sell drugs as adolescents.

Visit the ONDCP’s website for more information.