Middle Class Drug Abuse and Jewish Youth

Abstract

Statistically, drug abuse is a problem for Jews far in excess of their percentage among the American population. The author would posit three reasons for this. The vast majority of American Jewry lives in the major megalopolis areas of this country, and so are overly susceptible to this malady. A second reason is that the middle class drug abuser comes from an upward mobile, socio-economic family, one in which the father has been too busy making a living to pay much attention to the children and in which the mother is overly involved in outside activities that enhance her status in the community. Many Jewish families fit this description. And a third reason is that the middle class drug abuser is college bound in high school. And since over 80% of Jewish high school graduates are college bound, here again Jewish children are overly susceptible to drug abuse. These three factors have been overlooked by most researchers.