- Explain to interested patients that although cocaine use has decreased, high-school dropouts may not have gotten the dangerous and unhealthy message and therefore continue to use the drug.
BALTIMORE, Aug. 29 -- The message that it's not smart to use cocaine has apparently gotten across to better educated people, found researchers here.
Although people with more education were major recreational users of cocaine 25 years ago, there has been a dramatic decrease in persistent cocaine use (versus new use) among those with a college or high school degree, the researchers found.
But persistent use remained constant among those who never finished high school, Valerie S. Harder, M.H.S., and Howard D. Chilcoat, Sc.D., of Johns Hopkins reported in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
It is likely that high-school dropouts are less informed about risks and have poor access to health care services and drug treatment programs, they wrote.
