Quantitative and Qualitative Changes in Cocaine Use Among American High School Seniors, College Students, and Young Adults (From Epidemiology of Cocaine Use and Abuse, 1991, P 19-43, Susan Schober and Charles Schade, eds. -- See NCJ-135854)

• NCJ Number: 135855
• Author(s): P M O'Malley; L D Johnston; J G Bachman
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 25 pages
• Grant Number(s): DA-01411
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Sale Source: Superintendent of Documents, GPO; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A large sample of American high school seniors, college students, and young adults was used to examine trends in cocaine and related attitudes and beliefs; dropouts and school absentees were excluded from this database.

Abstract

The survey results show that lifetime prevalence is a high 15 percent among high school seniors and about 20 percent for college student; prevalence is around 30 percent of young adults between the ages of 19 and 28 and reaches 40 percent for people in their late twenties. According to the findings, the rate of cocaine use is higher among males than females, higher in the West and Northeast regions than in the North Central and South, and much lower in rural than in urban areas. While there was a significant decline in cocaine use in 1986-1987, the use of crack cocaine is not decreasing at the same rate. This study does not represent inner city populations where the dropout rate is very high. 4 tables, 10 figures, 1 notes, and 6 references