Illegal Drug Use Drops but Crack Addiction Soars

The overall use of illicit drugs among Americans has dropped sharply while cocaine addiction among hard-core users has increased dramatically, according to a survey released Monday by federal health officials.

“People who say all is lost, and we can’t win, and we should legalize (drugs) have never been more wrong,” William J. Bennett, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, said at a press conference.

Even so, Bennett said, “we are not out of the woods, not by a long shot. Drug crime is up, drug trafficking is up, drug deaths are up . . . and much of this can be explained in one word: crack.”

The periodic poll of U.S. households, which is used to estimate the extent of drug use among the entire U.S. population, showed what Bennett said was the largest drop in overall drug use since the survey began in 1971.

Projections for the poll’s sampling showed that those who had used marijuana, cocaine or other illicit drugs during the month preceding the survey, which was taken in 1988, decreased from 23 million in 1985 to 14.5 million last year, a 37% decline.

Also, the number of people who had used illicit drugs within the 12 months before the survey dropped 25% from 37 million in 1985 to 28 million last year, the poll showed. Heroin use is not included.

Overall Use Down

Overall cocaine use during the year preceding the survey dropped from 12 million in 1985 to 8 million in 1988. The number of “current” users--those who had used cocaine during the preceding month--fell 50% from 5.8 million in 1985 to 2.9 million last year.

But those who used cocaine regularly--once a week or more--jumped from 647,000 in 1985 to 862,000 last year, according to the survey. And the number of people who used cocaine daily or almost daily increased from 246,000 in 1985 to 292,000 in 1988.

The drug survey is a randomly selected sample of 8,814 people aged 12 or older in U.S. households, except Alaska and Hawaii, and is conducted through personal interviews and self-administered answer sheets.

Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan acknowledged the possibility of under-reporting, since individuals might be reluctant to disclose their use of illegal drugs. But he insisted that the survey was “reliable in showing the trends.”

“I’m never surprised at data coming from the household survey because a lot of the drug users don’t live in households and don’t answer surveys,” said Ronald K. Siegel, a psychopharmacologist at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Must ‘Be Very Clear’

“I’m not sure how relevant that population is to other populations in the United States,” he said. “I’ve had problems with that kind of data all through the years. . . . You have to be very clear about which people you’re talking about.”

“But the fact that the numbers are going up regarding cocaine is not surprising,” he added. “We see that in all the other indices in our society, in terms of seizure of cocaine, criminal justice statistics . . . and the number of people coming into treatment.”

“We’ve still got a lot of people doing a lot of drugs,” he said. “The bottom line is while we may be able to shift patterns of use . . . and render certain drugs unfashionable, you still have a lot of people using a lot of drugs.”

Believed Far Worse

Other drug experts said that the extent of cocaine addiction is in all likelihood far worse than portrayed in the survey because the polling process excluded the homeless and those living in military installations, dormitories, hospitals and prisons.

“This is a household survey, and most crack addicts don’t live in households,” said Trina Brugger, associate director for the American Council for Drug Education.

The survey indicated that, of the 2.9 million current cocaine users, nearly 500,000 used crack during the month before the survey. And of the 8 million who had used cocaine during the previous year, more than 1 million had used crack, the survey said. Crack is a highly addictive cocaine derivative that is usually smoked.

“For these individuals, the survey also underscores what we have already learned from research--that cocaine is an extremely addictive drug that frequently entraps its victims,” Sullivan said at the press conference.

The survey showed that cocaine use was highest among the unemployed, 4.6% of whom had used the drug in the previous month, and among those between the ages of 18 and 25, at 4.5%.

In addition, it found the highest rates of cocaine use in the Western region of the country, where 6.1% of the population had used cocaine in the previous year, and in large metropolitan areas, where 5.1% had used it. The Western region includes California.

Cocaine use among blacks and Latinos did not change significantly between 1985 and 1988. Cocaine use during the previous year dropped from 6.2% to 4.4% among blacks and rose from 5.1% to 5.7% among Latinos. Also, there was a “significant” increase in Latinos who had used cocaine at least once, from 7.3% in 1985 to 11% in 1988, the survey said.

Marijuana use, which has been declining since 1979, fell from 18 million current users in 1985 to 12 million in 1988, the survey said. Nevertheless, it remains the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, with almost 66 million Americans having tried it at least once in their lifetimes.

The report also found that more than 5 million of the nearly 60 million women of child-bearing age had used an illicit drug in the month before the survey, including cocaine and marijuana.

The survey said that alcohol and cigarette use also declined. The number of current drinkers dropped from 113 million in 1985 to 106 million in 1988, and current cigarette users decreased from 60 million to 57 million.

Times Medical Writer Janny Scott contributed to this story from Los Angeles.

DRUG REPORT Annual Use of Illicit Drugs: By Millions of People

Any Illicit Drug Use 1985: 37 1988: 28 (-25%)

Marijuana and Hashish 1985: 29 1988: 21 (-28%)

Cocaine 1985: 12 1988: 8 (-33%)

Weekly Cocaine Users: Hundred Thousands 1985: 647,000 1988: 862,000

SOURCE: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Department of Health and Human Services.