Attitudes toward persons who abuse drugs in one urban community of woodbrook in port of Spain-Trinidad & Tobago

Abstract

Objective: this study will present insights on the situation in the surveyed sample as it relates to attitudes towards persons who abuse alcohol by age and gender and would constitute a platform upon which further research can be conducted by researchers in the drug field. Method: this cross-sectional study examines the profile of a sample of residents in the Electoral District of Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The sample consisted of 121 respondents. Results: alcohol was the most abused drug (85.2%), followed by marijuana (86%), cocaine (69%) and cocaine derivative (41.8%). The prevailing attitude towards persons who abused alcohol was ambivalence (64.8%); this was followed to a lesser extent by an attitude of negativity (34.4%), and the least significant attitude among respondents was premised on positivity (.8%). Respondents also held a negative attitude towards those who abused cocaine and marijuana. Conclusion: the high level of ambivalence towards alcohol use may be intertwined with the social acceptability and high usage of this drug reported from among those surveyed in the Electoral District of Woodbrook.