NCJ Number
156263
Date Published
1991
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This report presents statistics on cocaine use from 1972 to 1991, with emphasis on estimates for 1991, based on the National Institute on Drug Abuse National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
Abstract
During 1991, an estimated 3.1 percent of the total population used cocaine. In the last month before the survey, 0.9 percent reported use, including 0.4 percent of youths ages 12-17, 2 percent of young adults ages 18-25, and 0.8 percent of the adults ages 26 and older. An estimated 23,715,000 people ages 12 and older are estimated to have used cocaine at some time during their lives. Among high school seniors, 9.4 percent of the class of 1990 report ever using cocaine and 3.5 percent ever using crack, compared to 16.5 percent of the class of 1981 reporting ever using cocaine. Among college students, the percentage reporting ever using cocaine declined from 21.5 percent in 1981 to 14.6 percent in 1990. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) reported 80,355 hospital emergency room mentions of cocaine during 1990, a decline from the more than 104,000 during 1988.