Correlates of illicit drug use in Karen villages in Northern Thailand.

A study was conducted in 31 Karen tribal villages in Northern Thailand in 1999-2000 to address the question of why some villages have a relatively high prevalence of illicit drug use compared with others? Data were gathered from village leaders, residents, and through observations by field workers and the researchers, and included demographic, economic, and infrastructure development, and social and acculturation measures. Overall, few village-level variables were related significantly to drug use in the villages; those that were included: 1) better access to elementary education reported by "high drug" villages (81%) in comparison with "low drug" villages (29%) and 2) high drug villages reported having more alcoholic residents than low drug villages. The findings provide some support for the hypothesis that illicit drug use is positively associated with socioeconomic development, acculturation, and socialization into mainstream attitudes, values, and behaviors.