|
National
household
Survey
Results:
Teen
Marijuana
use
levels
off.
Heroin
use
up
among
18-25
year-olds
8/8/97
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released their annual
Household Survey results this week. Teen marijuana use appears to have
leveled off, with past month use estimated at 7.1% of those aged 12-17,
as opposed to 8.2% of that population during the previous year. Past month
cocaine use remained well below its 1985 high of 3% of the population,
with 1996 estimates at 0.8%, up slightly from 0.7% last year. (Use declined
slightly among 12-17 year-olds.)
Heroin use, both injecting and smoking/snorting, was down in the 12-17
age group, from an estimated 101,000 injectors in '95 to 84,000 in '96
and from 71,000 other users (smoke/snort) to 48,000 in '96. Heroin use
rose, however for those 18-25 from 144,000 to 160,000 injectors in '96
and from 139,000 to 222,000 other users (smoke/snort) in '96.
It should be noted, however, that the government drug use surveys rely
on young people's willingness to accurately report their drug use (a willingness
that varies with the political and cultural climate), miss key high-risk
segments of the population, and have other limitations. A discussion of
this, by the US General Accounting Office can be found at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/gao/gao5.htm.
Information on the survey can be found online at http://www.samhsa.gov
(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) or http://www.health.org
(National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information).
-- END --
|
Issue #6, 8/8/97
National household Survey Results: Teen Marijuana use levels off. Heroin use up among 18-25 year-olds | Needle Exchange: Two Representatives have introduced a bill to lift the ban on federal funding | International: Foreign press gets real about the War on Drugs | Medical Marijuana: Breaking News: NIH Medical Marijuana Panel Releases Report | 60th Anniversary of Marijuana Prohibition | Quote of the Week: It's time... | Link of the Week: Esequiel Hernandez | Editorial: If the US government could make the illegal drug trade disappear, would it?
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
