NCJ Number
235875
Date Published
June 1986
Length
306 pages
Annotation
Drug use patterns are reported for 18 U.S. cities and Europe as presented at the June 1986 proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, which was established in 1976 to assist the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in national drug abuse monitoring.
Abstract
The city representatives report increasing numbers of persons who smoke cocaine. This is believed to be due to the increasing availability in certain areas of the country of a preprocessed form of cocaine known as "crack" or "rock." Particular concern was expressed regarding the reduced time from the first use of "crack" to dependency, which has impacted the demand for treatment services. Generally, indicator data for all forms of cocaine have continued to increase in the cities; however, currently it is difficult to determine the impact that "crack" has had on these statistics. Fourteen cities reported the increasing availability of a potent form of heroin known as "black tar," "gumball," or "tootsie roll." It is insoluble in water and is being smoked rather than used intravenously. The population of heroin users appears to be aging; the gradual increase in client age along with the relative stability in users' sex and race suggests a stable prevalence of heroin addicts. The use of marijuana is prevalent in all the cities, particularly among individuals under 21 years old. Statistics on AIDS among intravenous (IV) drug users indicate that IV drug use is the most prevalent risk factor for females and the greatest seropositivity rate is for people with both IV and homosexual/bisexual behaviors. Although the country presentations were not representative of all of Western Europe, some general trends are apparent. Heroin addiction is apparently either stabilized or declining, especially among youth; cocaine use is apparently increasing, but not at the rate or prevalence reported recently in the United States.