Drug Addicts Learn to Save Lives

On September 29, 2010 Addiction Journal published an article entitled Researchers Find Father's Incarceration Associated with Elevated Risks of Marijuana and Other Illegal Drug Use. In this article, researchers from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio discussed evidence of a correlation between the incarceration of the male parent and the potential of increased risk of drug use by their adolescent and young adult children. The article was written by Dr. Raymond Swisher, Danielle Kuhl, and Jorge Chavez.

The article began by describing the drastic increase in incarcerations in the United States between 1975 and 2006. In 1975 there were approximately 250,000 people incarcerated and that number had grown to 2.25 million in 2006. The authors noted that during this same period, there was a noticeable increase in the number of children with incarcerated parents.

The authors also used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The study show that 51% of young men, and 40% of young women, whose biological fathers had a history of incarceration reported using marijuana, compared to 38% and 28%, respectively, of comparable men and women whose fathers were never incarcerated. The study also linked biological father's incarceration with elevated use of other illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines.

The Bowling Green State University researchers were careful to note that this is a non-experimental study and that it does not indicate a causal process. The authors advised that additional research would need to be done in order to categorically state that there is a direct link between the incarceration of the male parent and the likelihood of the child using and abusing narcotics.

This article truly touched me at my core. I grew up in a very poor neighborhood that was predominantly black. Black males make up a disproportionate percentage of the incarcerated male parents that are described in this article. Many of my friends and family members were raised by a single mother, and many of their fathers were in jail or prison. I witnessed friends and family members experiment with drugs a very young age. Many of those same friends and family members became either drug dealers are habitual users by the time we were in high school.

I was one of the blessed and fortunate ones. My dad is a minister and my parents were married until my mother passed away. My father warned us of what was going on around us and he taught us how to effectively deal with the pressures around us. The article does not mention the potential reasons these young people experiment with drugs while their male parent is incarcerated. In my opinion, the desire to experiment may be enhanced by the lack of supervision in the home. Most single moms have to work to provide for the family, which leaves the children without a parental figure's presence throughout a large percentage of their