NCJ Number
152412
Date Published
November 1994
Length
84 pages
Annotation
This report measures heroin availability in New York, Chicago and San Diego.
Abstract
The report uses "search time" as an indicator of heroin availability, i.e., the elapsed time from the point at which an individual decides to use heroin to the point where the drug is in hand. A total of 50 current users were recruited for interviews in the three sites. Users varied by race, socioeconomics, and age. The mean average search time within the sample was 35 minutes; the median was 30 minutes. Only three variables correlated with search time: number of weekly purchases, site, and type of heroin connection. More than half of the sample user population used only one type of connection (dealer), with the remainder citing different combinations of street, beeper, and phone connections. Two-thirds of the users had a main source, and cited the quality of heroin, dependability, credit extension, and availability of the dealer and his heroin supply as reasons for using him as a main source. Among the user pool in this study, the mean number of heroin buys a week was 13, or just about twice a day. The report concludes that search time and street-level dealing should be most heavily targeted by police, since police presence at dealing sites was considered a large problem among users. Note, tables, figures, appendixes, references