Substance abuse among Greenlandic school children

1934 school children 12 to 19 years of age answered anonymously a questionnaire, which was sent to all towns and the larger settlements in Greenland. The questionnaire was administered by teachers in the classroom to all pupils in grades seven to eleven. The survey was conducted in November 1990. 1557 students were Greenlandic and 377 were Danish. There were 774 Greenlandic boys and 783 girls. There were 208 Danish boys and 169 girls. The questionnaire had questions about age, sex, social background and use of substance. The substances surveyed for were tobacco, alcohol, hashish/marihuana and different substances for sniffing. 26% of the Danish boys and 45% of the Greenlandic boys were smokers compared to 39% of the Danish girls and 61% of the Greenlandic girls. In the 15-19 age group about 75% were smokers. 71% of the smokers smoked more than three cigarettes a day. 87% of the Danish pupils and 63% of the Greenlandic had used alcohol. Greenlandic students had more often used beer than any other beverage, Danish students had wine more often than the Greenlanders. Out of the total 13% of the boys and 4% of the girls regularly took more than ten times 2cc of pure alcohol on each occasion. 6% of the Danish students and 25% of the Greenlandic students had tried sniffing. They mostly used lighter-gas or glue. Boys used sniffing more often than girls. 25% of the Greenlandic students had tried smoking hashish, in the age group 16-17 about 50%. Cigarette smokers more often than non-smokers used other substances.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)