Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 29, 1995 TAG: 9505300113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The report, which is to be made public Tuesday, estimates that in 1993 users spent $31 billion on cocaine, $7 billion on heroin, $9 billion on marijuana and $2 billion on other controlled substances such as amphetamines.
The report finds that hard-core use of cocaine and heroin declined about 15 percent over the six-year span while occasional use fell markedly. Partially because of the decline in users, but mainly because of a drop in street prices, expenditures for the two drugs declined substantially during the six years, the report said.
However, the lower prices are a sign of falling demand, which reinforces the inference that there are fewer users, federal officials said. They said they believe the price of cocaine and heroin would have gone down even more if interdiction efforts by federal and local law enforcement had not been having considerable success in limiting the supply of these drugs entering the country.
The report was prepared for the White House by Abt Associates, a private research organization.
Sources said Brown sees these findings as a sign both that the administration's strategy for combating drug trafficking is showing results but that much work remains if drug abuse is to be eliminated as a national problem.
The Washington Post has obtained a copy of the study, which uses two computer model approaches to measure the extent of the problem as it stood in 1993, the most recent year for which sufficient data is available. One method was based on demand, as indicated by dollar expenditures on illicit drugs, and the other on supply, as revealed by changes in the prices asked by street dealers.
The report acknowledges that its statistical findings are likely to vary somewhat from other studies issued by groups attempting to track the dimensions of the drug problem. It also concedes that the secrecy in which drug trafficking takes place means that available statistics inevitably are incomplete and imprecise. Nevertheless, the study authors say they believe that the report adds up to a relatively accurate ``mosaic of drug use trends in America.'' Among the most eye-arresting findings:
In 1993, about 2.1 million Americans were hard-core cocaine users, and about 500,000 were hard-core heroin users. In 1988, there were an estimated 2.5 million hard-core cocaine users and 590,000 heroin abusers.
A much bigger decrease was noted among occasional cocaine and heroin users. The number of occasional cocaine users dropped from 7.3 million in 1988 to 4 million in 1993, and occasional heroin users fell from 540,000 to 230,000 over the same six-year span.
More Americans use marijuana than either cocaine or heroin. In 1993, about 9 million had used marijuana at least once in the month before being surveyed by various drug research groups. In 1988, similar surveys found that 11.6 million Americans admitted using marijuana. In contrast to all other categories of illegal drugs, expenditures on marijuana have remained constant.
by CNB