NCJ Number
200293
Date Published
January 2003
Length
136 pages
Annotation
This annual report for 2003 integrates the most recently available reporting from national-level law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the most current national substance-abuse-indicator data from public health agencies to depict the current domestic drug situation; it also provides information from State and local law enforcement agencies that responded to the National Drug Threat Survey 2002, as well as from more than 1,000 personal interviews with law enforcement and public health officials.
Abstract
This report addresses the trafficking and use of primary substances of abuse as well as the laundering of drug proceeds. Major substances of abuse are discussed in terms of their availability, demand, production and cultivation, transportation, and distribution. Primary market areas for each drug are identified. The report indicates that in 2001 an estimated 28.4 million people ages 12 and older reported using an illicit drug within the past year; an estimated 3.2 million people were dependent on or abusers of illicit drugs. America's drug users spent nearly $64 billion on illicit drugs in 2000, and the total cost of drug trafficking and drug-related crime to American society in that year exceeded $160 billion. The threat posed by various types of drugs varied from region to region. Nationally, however, reporting from Federal, State, and local law enforcement and public health agencies indicated that cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin, and MDMA were the greatest concerns. The National Drug Intelligence Center's 2002 survey found that 33.1 percent of State and local law enforcement agencies nationwide identified their greatest drug threat as cocaine (both powder and crack), followed by methamphetamine (31 percent), marijuana (20.4 percent), heroin (7.9 percent), diverted pharmaceuticals (2.7 percent), and MDMA (2 percent). Although a lesser threat overall, other dangerous drugs such as GHB and GHB analogs, ketamine, LSD, and psilocybin pose a health threat, particularly because of their appeal to adolescents and young adults. 10 tables and a list of data sources