HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Drug abusers say they want to quit cigarettes

Judith Seymour, Director, 
Department of Substance
Abuse Services
 

Friday,  April 22, 2005

Many persons affected by substance abuse who are undergoing treatment through the Department of Substance Abuse Services – either through the Department’s Caribbean Haven Residential Centre or its Out Patient treatment service – identify quitting cigarette smoking as a treatment goal.

Director of the Department, Judith Seymour, explained that for most of the people treated through the Department’s services, “they confirm that finding a way to stop cigarette smoking is one of the things they want to do.” 

Mrs Seymour went on to explain that the desire to stop cigarette smoking as one of the treatment goals comes from any abuser, regardless of the substance or substances for which the individual might be receiving treatment.

“Cocaine, marijuana and alcohol are the most common drugs of choice among abusers that we treat through our services. Clients’ substance abuse problems may be from use of one or a combination of any two, or all three of these drugs. Regardless of the drugs for which persons are being treated however, persons identify wanting to stop smoking during the course of their treatment.

“The tendency is for clients to identify alcohol as the trigger or the substance responsible for their relapse into substance abuse of any one, or combination of substances to which they are addicted.”

Asked about the impact of early use of a substance on a person’s tendency toward drug addiction, Mrs Seymour said, “The reasons for people using and abusing substances may be sourced in a whole range of things, from peer pressure, to being victims of sexual abuse, and not just in the onset or prevalence of drug use.”

Even though there is no direct link between onset of cigarette use and a life of substance abuse, Mrs Seymour added:

“We all know how harmful tobacco use is and so for us it is one of the things we focus on, along with the National Drug Council, in order to reduce the number that begin smoking cigarettes.”

According to the Surgeon General’s 2004 report, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States; it causes cancers in all parts of the body – kidney, cervix and bone marrow – that have not been previously linked to smoking in former reports; it diminishes health generally; and, the changes in cigarettes that reduce machine yields of tar and nicotine have not had any clear benefits on public health.

According to National Drug Council (NDC) statistics for year 2000, tobacco is the second most commonly used substance in the Cayman Islands. Almost half the respondents reported having smoked tobacco cigarettes during their lifetime. More importantly, more recent figures, drawn from 2002 data, reveal that there are those who are smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day. Among this number of smokers is included between 65 and 69 members of the student population between 11 and 16 years old.

“The approach to addressing substance abuse has to be an inter-agency and community-wide approach, because of the multiplicity of issues involved. Work in this field will also involve promoting drug use prevention, which is largely handled by the NDC, but also other things such as changing attitudes towards societal issues such as sexual abuse and other such factors that may lead to substance abuse,” Mrs Seymour said.

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