Cocaine and meth use among young adults has dropped significantly over the past year, while abuse of prescription drugs has risen, according to the nation’s largest substance use assessment, the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The report also showed a spike in drug use among 55-59 year-olds, as baby boomers entered that age range.

Cocaine use among 18-25 year-olds dropped 23 percent (to 1.7 percent), while methamphetamine use among young adults fell by a third (to 0.4 percent) between 2006 and 2007, said the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The survey was released today at the start of the 19th annual National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

Historically, young adults have had the highest rates of substance abuse.

Among youth ages 12-17, there was a significant decline in overall past month illicit drug use, from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.5 percent in 2007. Reductions in youth drug use occurred for nearly every type of illicit drug, including marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, LSD, Ecstasy, prescription-type drugs used nonmedically, pain relievers, stimulants and methamphetamine.

Current marijuana use among this age group declined from 8.2 percent in 2002 to 6.7 percent in 2007. Most of the decline occurred between 2002 and 2005.

The level of alcohol use also dropped among those aged 12 to 17, from 17.6 percent in 2002 to 15.9 percent in 2007.  Similarly, the rate of cigarette use among this age group diminished from 13.0 percent in 2002 to 9.8 percent in 2007.

“These results confirm that progress has been made – particularly regarding substance abuse among younger Americans,” said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. “The report also reminds us of the importance of our efforts to provide substance abuse treatment to those in need and to encourage health care professionals to identify people who are at risk for developing substance abuse problems and intervene early.”

The reductions in methamphetamine and cocaine use among young adults coincide with reductions in their use among Americans in the workforce and significant market disruptions for both drugs.  In 2007, there was a 21 percent increase in the average price per gram for cocaine and a 10 percent decrease in purity. 

Workplace drug test positives for cocaine dropped 19 percent in 2007 to the lowest levels in the history of this testing system.  For methamphetamine, there has been a 50 percent reduction in the level of workplace drug test positives since 2005, along with an 84 percent increase in average price per pure gram and 26 percent decrease in methamphetamine purity in 2007.

Despite many positive trends, the most recent NSDUH also reveals some less encouraging data.  Among young adults ages 18 to 25, the level of current nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers has risen 12 percent (to 4.6 percent in 2007).  In addition, the level of current illicit drug use among those aged 55 to 59 more than doubled, to 4.1 percent in 2007, confirming concerns that baby boomers have continued their higher levels of substance abuse as they age.

“Our efforts against methamphetamine, cocaine, and other illegal drugs are working,” said John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy.  “The markets for these poisons are shrinking, and the deadly grip they hold on the lives of individuals, families, and communities is being countered.  But when it comes to prescription drugs, we can not afford to re-live the painful experiences we’ve had with illegal drugs.  We must act quickly to increase awareness of the dangers of prescription drug abuse, decrease the illegal diversion of these products, and shore up safer practices for their prescription and distribution.”   

The 2007 NSDUH report also provides extensive data on mental health issues.  The report says 24.3 million Americans aged 18 or older experienced serious psychological distress over the past year, and 16.5 million Americans had suffered at least one major depressive episode during this period.

The mental health and substance abuse components of the report also highlight the association between these public health problems.  For example, in 2007 adults 18 and older who had experienced a major depressive episode in the past year were more than twice as likely as other adults to have used illicit drugs during that time (27.4 percent vs.12.8 percent).

“The survey shows the tremendous progress communities, families and individuals across America have made in reducing substance abuse among young people”, said  SAMHSA Acting Administrator  Eric Broderick, D.D.S, M.P.H, a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service. “It also provides critical information that will help guide the future direction of our substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts.’’  

NSDUH is a scientifically conducted annual survey of approximately 67,500 people throughout the country.  Because of its statistical power, it is a primary source of information on the levels of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use as well as certain mental health conditions.

The complete survey findings are available on the SAMHSA Web site at http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUHlatest.htm .

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Good Post, and Responsible Use of the Community Blogging System - Cheers!
written by findhelp, September 07, 2008

Lowster, thank you for your useful post chocked full of great statistics on cocaine and meth.
I am not writing however to praise you on the quality post, but rather to praise you for showing the treatment-centers.net community an example of how to use this site responsibly

I created this site to be a public benefit, to help the public find the help they so desperately need when suffering from the problems this site addresses, but also to help the industry - to help treatment centers interact with the public and get their information out, and to give individuals and professionals in the helping professions a platform through which they can help build value for their own products and services. Hence the ability for members of the online community on this site that also happen to have their own websites (for example) to post to the forums and write blog posts in which they can hypothetically link to themselves and give themselves value from this site. The parameters within which I will allow this however are very strict - they're not rocket science to figure out however, and are made clear in the forum guidelines, terms of use of the blogging system etc. etc... If you just ask yourself, "what would the administrators of this site consider responsible use of the seemingly too good to be true opportunity to get value from this site for my own site", you'll probably get it right!

Not a day has passed during which I haven't regretted that decision in many ways... Giving the responsibility to use these "gifts" of giving online value to people in the form of links for nothing in return from treatment-centers.net (which through a great deal of time, effort and money on my part has become without question the highest value site in the substance abuse industry, averages over a million pageviews/month etc.) has been nothing short of a nightmare 99% of the time. To give people unfamiliar with the field of internet marketing an idea, link brokerages sell links of equal or less value than I provide in these two areas of this site for $50/month routinely (and rarely if ever can you find them on a site as relevant to the addiction field).

Over the last year since I built all of the current functionality, I have had to remove literally 90% of the blog posts and forum posts written by people who have their own websites, as they try to link to themselves 10 times in 3 sentences of useless spammy text with no clear purpose other than to STEAL value from treatment-centers.net.

All of this said, this post by lowster is a prime example of the proper use of this system. You have used the blogging system to provide valuable, accurate information on subject matter highly relevant to this website on which you are expert, and have drawn attention to your own website on the subject through a single link relevant to the post, and the site at that address is of high quality. This is what I created this opportunity for... I commend you, and thank you for making it so that I don't have to yet again go through the site and remove frivolous use of these opportunities.

On a lighter note... I was wondering when someone would finally figure it out and do it right! Only took A YEAR

Cheers!

warmest regards and many blessings,
Bernie Grohsman
Founder, www.treatment-centers.net

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written by lowster11, October 10, 2008

Take it from me, I totally understand where you are coming from! I don't know how many blog and forum posts I have had to remove from my sites because of people out there who have no respect for someone else's site. And my link will not have as much value because your link is on my site.

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