| EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 10:00 A.M. EDT | NIJ | SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1998 | 202/307-0703 |
80 PERCENT OF ADULT MALE ARRESTEES IN CHICAGO USE ILLEGAL DRUGS
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- According to a just-released study, 80 percent of adult male arrestees in Chicago tested positive for at least one drug. Those testing positive for cocaine decreased from 52 percent in 1996 to 48 percent in 1997, while marijuana use increased slightly to 48 percent and opiate use also increased slightly to 22 percent. Overall methamphetamine use was low, although 3 percent of white arrestees tested positive for the drug. The report, Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program: 1997 Annual Report on Adult and Juvenile Arrestees, was released today by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
"ADAM assists both law enforcement officials and drug treatment providers as they work together to stop drug use and abuse and the crime it spawns," said NIJ Director Jeremy Travis. "Data collected under the ADAM program highlight the complex nature of the drug abuse problem and the need for communities to target law enforcement and treatment interventions appropriately."
In 1987, NIJ created the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) Program, a national and local information system on drug abuse and crime. In 1997, the DUF Program was redesigned and renamed ADAM (Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring) to reflect the anticipated geographic expansion of the program to 75 standing urban sites and its development as a research platform for use locally, regionally and nationally. ADAM also facilitates locally initiated research on topics related to drugs and crime identified by communities.
The ADAM Program consists of collecting and analyzing interviews and urinalysis of adult and juvenile arrestees and detainees in police lock-ups. Once fully developed, ADAM will serve as a source of information about drug use in our nation's cities, suburbs, rural areas and Native American sites.
Copies of the 1997 ADAM Annual Report are available on the Internet at https://ojp.gov/nij, or from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) by calling toll-free, 1-800/851-3420. The Annual Report features a section on each city in the 1997 program.
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NIJ 98-157
After hours contact: James Phillips at 888/491-4487 (pager)
ADAM Contact in Chicago: James Swartz at 312/573-8281