Recent weapon carrying and substance use among United States Virgin Islands youth

The objective of the present study was to estimate the strength of the asso ciations between recent weapon carrying and alcohol, cigarette, and illicit drug use among US Virgin Islands (USVI) youth. Data from 1,124 students in Grades 7-12 were analyzed using the conditional form of multiple logistic regression. Compared with youth who did not carry a weapon, youth who carri ed a weapon were more likely to be male and recent cigarette, alcohol, and illicit drug users. After matching on school and controlling for age, sex, race, neigborhood characteristics, and affiliation with friends who use alc ohol and illegal drugs, the associations with cigarette smoking and illicit drug use remained both moderate and statistically significant (odds ratio [OR] = 4.31, p < .001; OR = 2.99, p < .001, respectively). These findings i dentify a potentially high-risk population that could be targeted for inter ventions to reduce weapon carrying among youth.