Substance use among gay and lesbian adolescents

Surveys at a Massachusetts high school used multiple items to identify gay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers. Students with consistent homosexual preferences had greatly elevated rates of substance use. Those who displayed a homosexual preference but answered less consistently also had somewhat higher rates of substance use but were closer to heterosexual youths than to more consistent homosexual youths. The differences in substance use were least for alcohol use and greater for "hard" drugs. (C) 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.