Substance abuse studies and prevention efforts among Arabs in the 1990s inIsrael, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority - a literature review

This paper is the result of a collaborative project of Israeli, Jordanian a nd Palestinian scientists gathered to reveal the current extent of substanc e abuse and efforts at prevention among Arabs in Israel, Jordan and the Pal estinian Authority territories, in order to identify needs and suggest futu re collaborative activities and directions for regional cooperation. The ar ticle provides data and covers the current state of substance abuse prevent ion and research among Moslems, Christians and Druze Oz the trilateral regi on in the 1990s by reviewing prevention materials and studies published in the professional literature, as well as in reports and Doctoral and Master' s theses in Arabic, which have been located in academic libraries and other institutions, in the framework of a comprehensive search. This manuscript is the first to summarize Jordanian and Palestinian findings in the substan ce abuse domain. The review shows that most of the Israeli research in the Arab sector deals with alcohol use among youth, that the majority of Jordan ian studies focus on illicit drug use, that the research among Palestinians is in its infancy, and that comprehensive prevention programs are lacking in the trilateral region. It describes the key results of most of the 12 Is raeli studies among Arabs, II Jordanian studies and four Palestinian studie s. It reveals that drug abuse among Israeli Arab students is probably more prevalent than among Jewish adolescents, that the typical Jordanian drug ad dict has a higher level of education than the typical Palestinian drug addi ct, and that the Palestinian is more likely to be a multiple drug user. Rec ommendations for future activities include organization of a regional colla borative workshop in order to establish data collection systems for basic s tatistics relevant to drug abuse and development of comprehensive preventio n programs, as well as studies in the substance abuse domain concerning kno wledge, attitudes and behavior among the general Arab population.