Survey Calls Drug Abuse Serious, Not Growing Crisis

Drug abuse is a serious national problem--but not a rapidly growing crisis, according to figures released Thursday in the government’s latest household survey measuring drug use in the United States.

Despite a rising public perception that drugs constitute an increasing threat to the nation’s well-being, the new survey found that the percentage of Americans using such illegal drugs as heroin and marijuana has remained constant or actually declined between 1982 and 1985.

In the case of cocaine, considered the most serious new element in the drug problem, the survey showed that the percentage of Americans who said they had used it within the last year--as well as those who had used it within the last month--increased between 1982 and 1985 by less than one percentage point.

That was true in all three age categories surveyed.

Thus the survey’s findings indicate that the scope of illegal drug use has changed little over the last three years. Nevertheless, the total number of Americans using cocaine has increased substantially--by about 1.5 million, survey figures show.

The reason the total number of cocaine users has increased that much, even though the percentage of the population using the drug has not risen dramatically, is that the U.S. population has grown substantially between the 1985 survey and an earlier one in 1982.

Stirring further concern, drug experts say that many longtime cocaine users may be consuming more of the drug--with increasingly dangerous consequences, especially since the advent of “crack,” a potent, smokable form.

Nevertheless, overall, the new survey suggested that the dimensions of the nation’s drug abuse problem are not escalating wildly.

Among most age groups, for instance, the survey found that marijuana use decreased--as much as 5.8 percentage points.

Heroin use stayed unchanged.

Overall, the number of persons acknowledging that they used illicit drugs of any kind during the month before they were surveyed stayed flat between 1982 and 1985. In both years, 12% of respondents said they had used some kind of illicit drug. And the number of persons using illicit drugs of any kind at least once during the previous year also stayed flat--at 19%.

While acknowledging that there has been “hopeful movement away from the historic peaks” in American drug use of seven years ago, particularly among 18 to 25 year olds, Otis R. Bowen, secretary of health and human services, nonetheless spoke in terms of “a national crisis” and compared the nation’s fight against drug abuse to the Normandy invasion.

At the same time, Nancy Reagan told a Washington convention of the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth: “It is essential that you push the issue to the point of making people very, very uncomfortable. . . . If we can only keep the momentum going like it is now, just think what we can accomplish. . . . So keep your torches lit, carry them high for all to see!”

Bowen released the new survey at a news conference attended by Donald Ian MacDonald, Reagan’s administrator for alcohol, drug abuse and mental health problems. When he was asked whether news media had exaggerated--or “hyped”-- the drug issue, MacDonald replied: “I welcome the hype that the news media have given it.”

However, an opponent of anti-drug abuse legislation being considered in Congress, Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), reacted by saying: “We’re paying a price with our civil liberties for this hysteria. . . . The drug situation is something that needs to be looked at in a rational manner.”

Eight household surveys have been sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, considered the government’s authority on drug-use statistics since 1974. NIDA, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, uses a combination of personal interviews and confidential questionnaires to gain information from respondents.

Drug Use Peaked in ’79

Despite the Administration’s talk about a current “crisis,” NIDA’s surveys show that drug abuse in the United States was higher in the late 1970s: within-the-past-month cocaine use among 18 to 25 year olds peaked in 1979 at 9.3% of that age group. Past-month marijuana use peaked the same year for the same group at 35.4%.

By the time of the 1982 survey, those numbers had dropped to 6.8% for cocaine and 27.4% for marijuana.

Figures from the Administration’s 1985 survey, based on 8,038 respondents, show past-month marijuana use for the same 18- to 25-year-old age group dropped further, to 21.6%.

But past-month cocaine use began rising again, to 7.6%. Many experts believe this surge in cocaine use reflects intensive--and at least partly successful--efforts by authorities to curtail marijuana supplies, which coincided with declining cocaine prices. In effect, drug users who had difficulty getting marijuana switched to cocaine.

Cocaine Deaths Rise

Separate NIDA data, from what the agency calls its Drug Abuse Warning Network, has shown a threefold increase since 1981 in deaths and emergency room visits related to cocaine use. This increase, drug experts say, is attributable to the cumulative effects of prolonged cocaine use, which causes severe physical problems, and to the spreading use of “crack,” which is more toxic and more dangerous than ordinary cocaine.

Heroin use has remained constant over the years at less than .5%.

Age group by age group, here is how the percentages of household population using cocaine increased between 1982 and 1985, according to the survey.

Age 12-17:

--Used during past year in 1982, 4.1%; in 1985, 4.4%.

--Used during past month in 1982, 1.6%; in 1985, 1.8%.

Age 18-25:

--Used during past year in 1982, 18.8%; in 1985, 16.4%.

--Used during past month in 1982, 6.8%; in 1985, 7.7%.

Age 26 and above:

--Used during past year in 1982, 3.8%; in 1985, 4.2%.

--Used during past month in 1982, 1.2%, in 1985, 2.0%.

Use of Marijuana

Comparable numbers for marijuana use show decreases in all groups but 12 to 17 year olds. These youngsters show a .7 percentage point increase. The largest decrease was among admitted users in the 18- to 25-year-old age group: from 27.4% in 1982 to 21.6% in 1985.

Despite these percentage decreases, the estimated total number of drug users in the Administration survey demonstrates that drug abuse continues to be and is likely to remain an important national problem.

The Administration survey estimated that 5.75 million people of all age groups used cocaine within the last month during 1985. That was up from 4.2 million in 1982. The survey estimated that 12.2 million used cocaine within the past year, up from 11.9 million. An estimated 22.24 million people, the survey showed, have used cocaine at least once in their lifetime.

‘Victory Is Possible’

The survey estimated that 2.7 million 12 to 17 year olds used marijuana during 1985. It estimated that 7.1 million 18 to 25 year olds used marijuana, and that 8.4 million people 26 years old and over used it.

“Victory over illegal drug use will not come automatically or easily,” Bowen said. “We must not overpromise.” But he cited yet another government survey as evidence “that victory is possible.”

This survey of public attitudes, taken a month and a half ago, shows that 73% of Americans consider illegal drug use “one of the most serious problems facing the country” and that 68% recognized that experimenting with cocaine is “a great risk.”

Any use of “crack” is seen as very dangerous by about 90% of the population.