Canadian Street Youth and Substance Use

Findings from Enhanced Surveillance
of Canadian Street Youth, 1999-2003
(November 2007)

7. Conclusions

This report has presented a snapshot of the unique conditions that street youth are experiencing. Issues associated with elevated substance use are a major burden for all of Canadian society to deal with.

Substance abuse problems, especially in street youth, place a high financial burden on the health care and social infrastructure system. Canada’s youth incarceration rate is among the highest in the Western world. In 1989–90, approximately 37 000 young persons appeared in Canada’s courts, 62% of them for property offences, 18% for violent crime and 4% for directly drug-related offences.³⁴ A study conducted in April 2002 by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse suggested that there may be a link between substance abuse and crime.³⁴ All Canadians have an interest in reducing the rates of substance abuse among youth in general, and among street youth in particular, which in turn may result in better health, fewer run-ins with the law and lower rates of STIs or BBIs in Canadian youth overall.

Interventions aimed at street youth and substance abuse are often difficult to develop due to shifting or unstable living environments, lack of social infrastructure with which to implement prevention programming and lower school attendance compared to general youth populations. As such, more integrated approaches needs to be adopted to effectively address substance abuse in street youth. Targeting troubled youth before drug use and addictions begin may be the key to effectively dealing with substance abuse issues.

The results of this study show that street youth are an important and diverse segment of the Canadian population, and it is imperative that policy makers across Canada — in regional, provincial, territorial and national governments — ensure that Canadian street youth have access to education, social and health services that are tailored to meet their unique needs.