yes, if your tables are related you would do it in the same statement.

#this part might be different depending on how your db does SQL
my $people_query = $dbh->prepare("SELECT ss_number, f_name, l_name, st
+ate FROM people, states WHERE people.stID = states.stID");
[download]

If your tables are not related you would use multiple statement handles like the one above. As long as they have different names you can manipulate them indepedently.