| Appendix A: Qualitative
Findings
Substance Abuse
substance abuse
substance
abuse
Two areas that have
previously been identified as areas of concern for San Mateo County are substance abuse
and substance abuse treatment.
"The Legislative
Analyst’s Office a couple weeks ago released a report comparing counties in the state
on various statistics. It was interesting that the report said we are doing the best job
in the state in our child welfare system, we are doing the best job in the state in crime
rate, we are doing a very good job in a number of areas, we are doing the best job in
terms of moving people from Welfare to work. But one area that we are the lowest in the
state is in substance abuse, in the number of treatment slots available, I think we are #2
from the bottom."
— Community Leader
These community leaders tied
substance abuse to area crime.
"I know substance abuse is
a significant concern in Redwood City. In parts of our communities, drugs are imported and
they are sent out throughout the county and probably outside the county. I think it’s
a significant problem… It’s probably one of the single largest causes of the
large number of people in jail and the violence cases that we deal with."
— Community Leader
"We did a study last year
of who’s in the jail: 60 percent of people in our jail are there for drug offenses.
That’s why they’re there."
— Community Leader
Other participants identified
increased alcohol and drug use among area youth, in part due to the stress of growing up
and the pressures of a wealthy community.
"I think one big youth
issue is the stress that is on youth, the pressure that they have to perform, the pressure
that they feel from their parents who are absent, who are stressed, who are divorcing, the
pressure to be something that they’re not. And the way that it’s manifesting is
increased alcohol and drug abuse among juveniles. We know that among our youth population,
crime is down, but the portion of youth crime that’s up significantly is drug and
alcohol use and abuse. Some of it’s peer pressure in a negative sort of way:
something that astounded me in the wealthy communities is we’re seeing girls using
crack cocaine as a diet aid. We’ve got a wealthy community here in San Mateo County
and the kids feel tremendous pressure to be whatever it is that is ideal. We have very few
drug and alcohol treatment slots for kids. We have very few treatment slots in general,
but for kids I think it’s like 10 percent of the whole."
— Business Leader
"There’s a phenomenal
number of parents who are providing [kids] with alcohol and drugs, which makes it really
hard to say, ‘Don’t do that.’"
— Business Leader
"It used to be that you
went to college to experiment with drugs and alcohol and now they’re veterans of
that. So it’s a whole different level of interaction that we see happening with
students. And that type of behavior is manifested in terms of their relationships. We are
seeing the types of things like partner violence among students that we didn’t see
maybe 10 years ago. We’re spending more and more of our time and energy outside of
the classroom and the curriculum in working on socialization and relationship
skills."
— Community Leader
On another note, these social
services agents identified substance abuse among pregnant women as a problem.
"When we did a blind study
of tox-positive babies, 10 percent [of babies born in this county] were positive. That
shows us what alcohol and drug usage was going on within 4 days of the birth. We know
there’s a big problem, but the number of perinatal women that are actually in
treatment is very small. So it’s a huge issue, but it’s a hidden thing that
crosses economic lines."
— Social Services Representative
"Because half of the
[county resident] births occur outside of the county, it’s even easier to
hide…"
— Social Services Representative
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