Stepping Stone’s recent survey of lesbian, bisexual and questioning women in San Diego found that alcohol abuse is a number-one concern, followed by tobacco and methamphetamine abuse. The nonprofit recovery organization will use the data gathered in the Women’s Health Risk Survey in conjunction with women’s focus groups to develop workable treatment options. A social marketing campaign targeting the lesbian and bisexual women’s community is already underway, with ads running in Lavender Lens, Buzz and the Gay & Lesbian Times.

“It hasn’t been publicized much that there is a problem with alcohol and/or drugs in our community,” said Stepping Stone Executive Director Cheryl Houk. “And I think it’s Stepping Stone’s job to talk about those issues and get them more in the open, so that if they are having a problem, they can feel more comfortable about talking to someone else about them. If no one’s writing about it and talking about it, then they’re not going to bring it up so much.”

Stepping Stone staff and volunteers conducted outreach at 20 different bars, coffee shops and community events last September to gather the data, sometimes staying until bars closed at 2:00 a.m. in their attempts to access those women who engage in risky drug behaviors.

Of the 394 respondents in the survey, 80 percent identified as lesbian, 15 percent as bisexual, 1.8 percent as questioning and 2.5 percent declined to state. Age ranged from 15 to 67, with an average age of 31.7 years, with 49 percent between the ages of 19 and 29. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents identified as Caucasian, 20.6 percent as Latina, 9.2 percent as African American, 4.1 percent as Asian/Pacific Islander, 2.5 percent as Native American, 2.5 percent as bi-racial and 3.8 percent as other.

“Mainly we were looking at what was their drug of choice, the one that they use the most often, and get kind of a picture of what that is,” Houk said. “So that’s what the survey results show amongst the people we surveyed, which I think is probably a good showing of what lesbians are using out there.”

Eighty-four percent of the women who participated in the survey reported that they drank alcohol fairly regularly. Half the women usually drank at a local gay or lesbian bar, and one-fourth of the women reported that they usually drink at home with friends. Approximately 30 percent said when drinking they usually have five or more drinks, and 23 percent said they are worried that they may drink too much.

There was a relationship between having multiple sex partners and being in the heavier drinking group, though being a heavier drinker did not show a relationship nor predict unsafe sex, said Jim Zians, the consultant who designed and evaluated the Women’s Health Risk Survey. Although there was not a relationship between amount of alcohol and unsafe sex, there was a relationship between having multiple sexual partners and unsafe sex. Those with multiple sex partners related lower scores on safer sex intentions, Zians said.

The prevalence of smoking in Stepping Stone’s survey was 44.7 percent and women who were tobacco users were more likely to report that they were concerned about their alcohol use.

Several tobacco studies have shown that lesbian and bisexual women may smoke almost twice as much as heterosexual women, including a Women’s Health Initiative study conducted in 1999. Also in 1999, a study led by Ron Stall, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Interventions Research Branch AIDS prevention division, showed that lesbians appear to increase smoking with age, whereas heterosexual women decrease.

Though Stepping Stone’s findings matched these studies, Zians stressed that the Women’s Health Risk Survey shouldn’t be misconstrued as representative of the lesbian and bisexual women’s community as a whole because Stepping Stone was deliberately seeking out high-risk groups.

“What you say is that Stepping Stone is doing their job, because if you’re going to do a social marketing campaign, if they’re going to market something to women who may be smoking too much or drinking too much or doing drugs, you want to know what they’re like and where they are,” he said.

Five percent of the women surveyed reported that they had used meth in the past two months. Another 5 percent reported having used cocaine or crack cocaine in the last two months, 7.9 percent had used painkillers illegally and approximately 27 percent had smoked marijuana. Almost 13 percent worried they may have a drug problem, and 34.5 percent said they had a female friend who was in need of alcohol or drug treatment.

“The risk and the health problems in the men’s community are so much in the news, with HIV and methamphetamines and the linkage [between them]. Stepping Stone should be commended that they have recognized women have a separate track of their own risk in our community, and that we don’t have enough information,” Zians said.

Little data is available on drug and alcohol abuse among women in the GLBT community and studies are inconclusive on whether or not lesbian and bisexual women have higher substance abuse ratios than their straight counterparts.

“I don’t think there’s been a lot of publicity in relation to the alcohol use in the lesbian community, and how it plays into socialization – getting comfortable with who you are and being around other lesbians,” Houk said. “The discomfort is eased considerably if you’re under the influence. And many of us learn to socialize that way.”

Eleven percent of survey respondents said they had previously been in recovery. Of these 77 women, 29.9 percent reported using illegal drugs during the past two months. Additionally, 51.9 percent of those 77 women reported a recurrence of alcohol use.

The data gathered in the Women’s Health Risk Survey will help Stepping Stone apply for grants necessary to implement new women’s programming.

Stepping Stone board members and staff have received feedback that some women may prefer women’s treatment programs over co-ed programs. The Women’s Health Risk Survey reported 31.2 percent of the women had some discomfort with a co-ed substance treatment in a residential program, and another 10.4 percent of the women reported some discomfort about socializing around men.

Houk said Stepping Stone is looking to relocate to a new building and expand their services, and is also looking for affordable residential housing that will cater specifically to women.