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Drug
Addiction Statistics
Drug addiction statistics
are used to determine drug trends, from abuse to legal consequences. Many networks
have been established to provide cutting edge statistics on drug abuse in the
United States and across the world. These networks use information gathered
from everything between emergency room visits to medical examiners and coroners.
Drug addiction statistics can benefit the public by displaying factual evidence
that certain drugs are becoming a problem, and also as information used in drug
and alcohol debates. It is also hoped that the information showing the growing
trends of drugs would give us an perspective on the future and help us prevent
further increasing numbers of drug abuse.
- ED visits involving the
club drug MDMA (Ecstasy) increased 58 percent in the U.S., from 2,850 visits
in 1999 to 4,511 in 2000.
- The number of ED visits
involving heroin/morphine increased 15 percent, from 84,409 to 97,287.
- There were 601,776 estimated
drug-related ED episodes in 2000 and, among these, there were 1,100,539 drug
mentions. (More than one drug may be in a person's system at the time of admission.)
- Alcohol-in-combination
(with other drugs) was the most frequently mentioned drug at time of ED admission
(204,524), followed by cocaine (174,896), heroin/morphine (97,287), and marijuana
(96,446).
- From 1999 to 2000, ED
mentions of prescription drugs containing oxycodone increased 68 percent (from
6,429 to 10,825), and mentions of drugs containing hydrocodone increased 31
percent (from 14,639 to 19,221). From 1998 to 2000, mentions of oxycodone
and hydrocodone increased 108 percent and 53 percent, respectively.
- Employed drug abusers
cost their employers about twice as much in medical and worker compensation
claims as their drug-free coworkers.
- Marijuana is the most
commonly used illicit drug. In 2001, it was used by 76 percent of current
illicit drug users.
- In 2001, an estimated
15.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current illicit drug users, meaning
they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey interview.
This estimate represents 7.1 percent of the population aged 12 years old or
older.
- The percentage of the
population using illicit drugs increased from 6.3 percent in 1999 and 2000
to 7.1 percent in 2001. Between 2000 and 2001, statistically significant increases
were noted for the current use of marijuana (4.8 to 5.4 percent), cocaine
(0.5 to 0.7 percent), pain relievers (1.2 to 1.6 percent), and tranquilizers
(0.4 to 0.6 percent). A change in NHSDA questions on hallucinogens caused
the estimated rate of use of this category of drugs to increase from 0.4 to
0.6 percent between 2000 and 2001.
- There were 19,102 Deaths
From Drug-Induced Causes in 1999 (legal and illegal drugs)
- The number of persons
with substance dependence or abuse increased from 14.5 million (6.5 percent
of the population) in 2000 to 16.6 million (7.3 percent) in 2001.
- In 1999 there were 179,000
treatment admissions for primary injection drug abuse and 34,000 admissions
for secondary injection drug abuse.
- Opiates accounted for
83 percent of admissions for injection drug abuse, followed by methamphetamine/amphetamine
(11 percent) and cocaine (5 percent)
- Injection drug admissions
of young people aged 15 to 25 years old increased between 1992 and 1999.
- Among 1999 injected drug
admissions, persons admitted for injecting opiates averaged 14 years of use
before entering treatment for the first time, while those admitted for injecting
methamphetamine/amphetamine averaged 12 years, and for cocaine 13 years.
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Theft and drug addiction
