According to a recent article published in the Irish Medical Times, yes they do.

The Women’s Health Council (WHC) claims that young women have almost caught up with their male peers when it comes to the frequency with which they consume alcoholic beverages.  Almost shockingly, young women are 44 percent more likely to binge drink compared to young men at 42 percent.  Not only this, but evidence is showing that consuming alcohol by binge drinking also tends to act as a sort of gateway into other illicit drug use such as cannabis and heroine.

So, why are women so much more vulnerable to the negative health effects of alcohol and drug abuse?  Why is it that these women seem that much more prone to developing a drug addiction than their male counterparts?  The WHC had this to say on the subject:

Women’s biological make-up is partly responsible, particularly their hormones and their proportionally higher ratio of fat to water than men. These affect how much and how quickly alcohol and drugs are absorbed..[source]

What Can be Done?

There is a saying that “prevention is better than cure,” and nowhere else is this more true than when it comes to drug and/or alcohol abuse.  Perhaps parents or other adult figures need to sit down with females at a young age.  Girls need to know that there is more than one way to handle stress other than by using drugs or alcohol.  There are people that they can talk to if they have a problem.  There are other creative outlets that they can go into and utilize.  It doesn’t always have to come back to a bottle of alcohol to “have a good time”.

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab for women, contact The Mark Houston Recovery Center for Women today at 877.383.4426.