Substance Abuse Trends in Texas: June 2001
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Substance Abuse Trends in Texas: June 2001 Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Table of Contents Overview . 1 Area Description . 2 Data Sources and Time Periods . 2 Cocaine and Crack . 3 Alcohol . 6 Heroin . 9 Other Opiates . 11 Marijuana . 13 Stimulants . 15 Depressants . 17 Club Drugs and Hallucinogens . 18 Rohypnol . 18 Gamma Hydroxybutrate . 19 Ecstasy . 20 Ketamine . 20 PCP . 20 LSD . 21 Dextromethorphan . 22 Inhalants . 22 AIDS and Drug Use . 23 ©June 2001, Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA), Austin, Texas. TCADA grants full permission to reproduce and distribute any part of this document for non-commercial use. Appropriate credits appreciated. TCADA is a state agency headed by six commissioners appointed by the governor. TCADA provides educational materials on substance use, develops prevention, intervention, and treatment programs, and conducts studies on the problems of substance use and compulsive gambling in Texas. Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse 9001 North IH-35, Suite 105 Austin, Texas 78753-5233 (512) 349-6600 • (800) 832-9623 Web site: www.tcada.state.tx.us Substance Abuse Trends in Texas—June 2001 Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse — Austin, Texas OVERVIEW JANE CARLISLE MAXWELL, PH.D. rack cocaine is the primary The percentage of arrestees testing Depressants continue to be a problem illicit drug for which adult positive for heroin remains mixed, because of their availability in Mexico. Cclients enter treatment. The and overdose deaths in 1999 are Mentions of downers have decreased proportion of Anglo and Hispanic down slightly from 1998. The price in the Dallas emergency rooms. admissions for crack now totals 50 and purity of Mexican heroin remain percent as African-American crack steady, with plentiful supplies. Club drug use continues to spread, admissions decline. Powder cocaine with those who began using them inhalers tend to be Hispanic and Seventy-three percent of youths enter- several years ago now appearing in injectors are Anglo. Deaths due to ing treatment report marijuana as their treatment. GHB, GBL, and similar cocaine continue to increase and primary problem drug. Dallas emer- precursor drugs remain a problem, cocaine is the drug, after marijuana, gency room mentions of marijuana particularly in the Metroplex area, for which arrestees are most likely to have dropped since 1998, but are still with a high rate of emergency room test positive. The rate of emergency above the national average. Availability mentions. Poison control confirmed room mentions of cocaine in Dallas is high. The prevalence of use by stu- exposure calls about Rohypnol are remains high. Cocaine is a signifi- dents declined slightly between 1998 increasing, as are adolescent admis- cant problem on the border. and 2000, but use by adults increased sions to treatment. Ecstasy is more between 1996 and 2000. prevalent: poison control center con- firmed exposures, emergency room Alcohol is the primary drug of abuse Seizures of methamphetamine and mentions, treatment admissions, and in Texas in terms of dependence, amphetamine continue to rise, but DPS lab confirmations are all up. deaths, treatment admissions, and the reports of adverse effects to these Arrestees are testing positive for PCP, arrests. Use among Texas secondary stimulants do not reflect the increas- emergency room mentions of PCP school students, particularly younger ing supply. Emergency room men- are increasing, and more adult clients ones, declined between 1998 and tions increased, but the percent of are entering treatment for problems 2000, but binge drinking and driving admissions to publicly-funded treat- with PCP. Use of marijuana joints while under the influence remain ment and percent of arrestees testing dipped in embalming fluid that can problematic. Sixteen percent of adults positive is still low. Stimulant users contain PCP (“Fry”) continues. reported past-year problems with entering treatment are Anglo and alcohol in 2000. injectors. Diversion of ephedrine and The proportions of AIDS cases due pseudoephedrine continues, with the to injecting drug use and to hetero- Heroin addicts entering treatment are number of small labs increasing sexual route of transmission are primarily injectors, and they are most around the state. In addition, more increasing, as are the proportions of likely to be Hispanic or Anglo males. methamphetamine is coming into females and persons of color. The Emergency room mentions of heroin Texas directly from Mexico. proportion of needle users entering in Dallas have risen in the last year. treatment continues to decrease. Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse | 1 Substance Abuse Trends in Texas: June 2001 AREA DESCRIPTION The population of Texas in 2000 is Worth and Houston. In addition, to traffic narcotics and smuggle 20,851,820, with 56 percent Anglo, drugs move eastward from San money continues to increase. 12 percent African American, and Diego through Lubbock and from Seaports are used to import heroin 32 percent Hispanic. Illicit drugs El Paso to Amarillo and Dallas/Fort and cocaine via commercial cargo continue to enter from Mexico Worth. A major problem is that vessels and the international airports through cities such as El Paso, Mexican pharmacies sell many con- in Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville, trolled substances to US citizens are major ports for the distribution as well as smaller towns along the who can legally bring up to 50 of drugs in and out of the state. border. They then move northward dosage units into the US. The use of for distribution through Dallas/Fort private and express mail companies DATA SOURCES AND TIME PERIODS Substance Abuse Trends in Texas is an Treatment data—TCADA’s Client half of 2000 came from the Drug on-going series which is published Oriented Data Acquisition Process Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) every six months as a report to the (CODAP) provided data on clients at of the Substance Abuse and Mental Community Epidemiology Work admission to treatment in TCADA- Health Services Administration. Group meetings sponsored by the funded facilities from first quarter National Institute on Drug Abuse. 1983 through December, 2000; how- Drug use by arrestees—The To compare June 2001 data with ear- ever, only partial data have been avail- Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring lier periods, please refer to previous able for Dallas County since July, Program (ADAM) of the National editions that are available in hard 1999. For most drugs, the characteris- Institute of Justice provided informa- copy from the Texas Commission on tics of clients entering with a primary tion for first, second, and fourth Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) problem with the drug are discussed, quarters of 2000 for Dallas males and or on the TCADA web page at but in the case of emerging club females; first and second quarters for http://www.tcada.state.tx.us/research/ drugs, information is provided on any Houston males and first quarter for subabusetrends.html. client with a primary, secondary, or Houston females; all quarters for tertiary problem with that drug. Laredo males and females; and all Data were obtained from the quarters for San Antonio males. The following sources: Overdose death data—Data on 2000 findings for females are compa- drug overdose deaths through 1999 rable with earlier years; the male find- Price, purity, trafficking, distribu- came from death certificates from ings are weighted and represent tion, and supply—This information the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the probability-based sampling, so they was provided by the first and second Texas Department of Health. are not comparable with earlier years, quarter 2001 reports on trends in although the 1991-1999 data are pre- trafficking from the Dallas and Emergency room mentions— sented to provide a view of the trend Houston field divisions of the Drug Mentions of drugs in the Dallas area for those years. Enforcement Administration (DEA). emergency rooms through the first 2| Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Substance Abuse Trends in Texas: June 2001 Student substance use—Data came Wallisch, which is available at Laboratory Information System from TCADA’s 2000 Texas School http://www.tcada.state.tx.us/research/ reported data collected by all of the Survey of Substance Abuse: Grades 7-12 adultsurveys.html. Texas Department of Public Safety by Liang Liu and Jane Maxwell, which (DPS) laboratories for 1999 and 2000. is available at Poison Control Center data—The http://www.tcada.state.tx.us/research/ Texas Department of Health pro- Acquired Immunodeficiency schoolsurveys.html. vided data from the Texas Centers Syndrome (AIDS) data—The Texas for 1998, 1999, and 2000. Department of Health provided Adult substance use—Data came annual and year-to-date AIDS data for from TCADA’s 2000 Texas Survey of Drugs identified by laboratory the period ending March 31, 2001. Substance Use Among Adults by Lynn tests—The National Forensic DRUG ABUSE TRENDS COCAINE AND CRACK The TCADA 2000 Texas School (1.4 percent to 1.9 percent) was sta- Although Appendix 5 shows that the Survey of Substance Abuse: Grades 7-12 tistically significant. The levels of rate of cocaine emergency room found that 8.6 percent of students in crack cocaine use did not change mentions per 100,000 population in non-border counties had ever used between 1996 and 2000 (2 percent the Dallas DAWN data was lower in powder cocaine and 2.9 had used lifetime and 0.1 percent past month). the first half of 2000 than the peak cocaine in the past month. In com- period in 1998, it was still higher parison, students in schools on the Texas Poison Control Centers reported than in earlier years. In the first half Texas border reported higher levels of 357 confirmed exposures to cocaine in of 2000, there were 1,026 mentions powder cocaine use: 13.4 percent life- 1999 and 1,455 in 2000.