NCJ Number
145213
Date Published
1993
Length
85 pages
Annotation
The General Accounting Office (GAO) assessed patterns and trends in the use of marijuana, cocaine, and opiate drugs among three targeted groups.
Abstract
In studying the three respective groups, GAO used data from three prominent drug prevalence surveys: the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), the High School Senior Survey (HSSS), and the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) study of booked arrestees. Cocaine use among booked arrestees exceeded 40 percent in each of the four years in the period 1987-1990; in 1990, the rate was 22 times higher than that of high school seniors and 53 times higher than that of general households. Marijuana use decreased among all the groups. GAO found methodological problems with NHSDA that caused, for example, an overestimation of the number of frequent cocaine users in 1991. HSSS excludes absentees and dropouts; its figures for nonwhites are uncertain. DUF, unlike the other two surveys, relies on urinalysis tests rather than self-reports. Because the validity of self- reported data is questionable, and because HSSS and NHSDA data showed little variation in consecutive years, GAO recommends that such surveys be conducted only biennially. The move, GAO says, would save money without any significant loss of information. Bibliography