Data suggests drug treatment can lower U.S. crime
U.S. crime statistics show illegal drugs play a central role in criminal acts, providing new evidence that tackling drugs as a public health issue could offer a powerful tool for lowering national crime rates, officials said on Thursday.
An annual drug monitoring report, released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, also showed a decline in the use of cocaine since 2003, a sign that drug-interdiction efforts and public education campaigns may be curtailing the use of the drug’s powder and crack forms.
The rate of overall illegal drug use in the United States has declined by roughly 30 percent since 1979.
But Thursday’s report, based on thousands of arrestee interviews and drug tests, showed that on average 71 percent of men arrested in 10 U.S. metropolitan areas last year tested positive for an illegal substance at the time they were taken into custody.
The figures ranged from 64 percent of arrests in Atlanta to 81 percent in Sacramento, California, and were higher for nearly half of the collection sites since 2007.
U.S. officials held up the data as evidence to support President Barack Obama’s strategy aimed at breaking the cycle of drugs and crime by attacking substance abuse with treatment rather than jail for nonviolent offenders.
“Tackling the drug issue could go a long way in reducing our crime issues,” Gil Kerlikowske, head of the office that issued the report, told Reuters in an interview.
“These data confirm that we must address our drug problem as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue.”
The arrest figures included men taken into custody on more than one charge as well as those arrested in drug busts.
The data showed that on average about 23 percent of violent crimes and property crimes, including home burglaries, were committed by people who tested positive for at least one of 10 illegal drugs including marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines.
Charlotte, North Carolina, had the highest proportion of drug-related violent crime offenses at 29 percent, while New York City had the highest for drug-related property crimes at 32 percent.
DECLINE IN COCAINE USE
Cocaine was the second-most common drug found among arrestees after marijuana. But the report said cocaine use, with crack the most popular form, has declined significantly since a decade ago, dropping by half in major cities like New York and Chicago between 2000 and 2011.
The report said methamphetamine use was strongest in the West Coast cities of Sacramento and Portland, Oregon, with no evidence that its use has grown appreciably in areas east of the Mississippi River.
Explaining the recent decline in cocaine use among young adults: further evidence that perceived risks and disapproval lead to reduced drug use.
Bachman JG, Johnston LD, O’Malley PM.
Abstract
This paper explores alternative explanations for the recent sharp decline in cocaine use among high school seniors, using questionnaire data from annual nationwide surveys conducted from 1976 through 1988. Results show important parallels with earlier analyses of the longer-term decline in marijuana use. Although lifestyle factors (e.g., religious commitment, truancy, evenings out for fun and recreation) show strong links with use of marijuana and cocaine, these factors have not developed trends in ways that can account for the declines in use of either drug. Reported availability of either drug has not been reduced. Instead, increases in perceived risks and disapproval appear to have contributed substantially to the recent declines in use of marijuana and cocaine. The findings provide strong support for the use of realistic information about risks and consequences as an important ingredient in efforts to prevent drug use. Coupled with the findings on availability, the results emphasize the importance of efforts to reduce demand (as opposed to supply).
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Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48106-1248.
U.S. health officials says the link between drugs and crime is socially complex. But the effect drugs have on human behavior can seem more straightforward.
“Drugs impact things like inhibitory control. And our ability to weigh risks and consequences of certain behaviors is severely effected by drug abuse,” said Dr. Redonna Chandler of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Cocaine statistics
- In 2004, 34.2 million Americans aged 12 and over reported lifetime use of cocaine
- There were 2.0 million current cocaine users, 467,000 of whom used crack.
- There were declines between 2003 and 2004 in the percentages of youths perceiving a great risk in using cocaine
- Young Adults Aged 18 to 25: at 19.4 percent of illicit drug use, 2.1 percent reported using cocaine most were age 18 or older although the average age of first use was 20.0 years.
- In 2004,the percentage of youth ages 12 to 17 reporting lifetime use of cocaine was 2.4 percent
- In 2004, an estimated 1.0 million persons had used cocaine for the first time within the past 12 months-approximately 2,700 per day
- Adults age 26 and older have the highest rate of current cocaine use, compared to other age groups
- In 2004, crack use was down for 16- or 17-year-olds
- In 2004, crack use was up for 21- to 25-year-olds; 21-year-olds also showed increases in the past year use of both crack and cocaine.
- In 2004, use of cocaine was down among females aged 12-17
- In 2004, use of cocaine was up among Blacks aged 18 to 25
- There was a decrease in cocaine use measured among Asians aged 18 to 25 in the past year.
- Cocaine-related death mentions in 2003 were particularly high in New York City/Newark, Detroit, Boston, and Baltimore, as measured by one Federal data source. Reports from local medical examiner data named Texas and Philadelphia as sites with the highest rates of cocaine-related deaths from 2003 through 2004.
- Primary cocaine treatment admissions in 2004 accounted for 52.5 percent of treatment admissions, excluding alcohol, in Atlanta, 38.9 percent in New Orleans, and approximately 36 percent in Texas and Detroit.
Drug enforcement experts say the evidence strongly supports wider use of drug courts, which seek to impose treatment regimens instead of prison sentences on repeat criminals that are dependent on illegal drugs.
West Huddleston, of the Alexandria, Virginia-based National Association of Drug Court Professionals, said a convicted criminal who successfully completes a court-imposed treatment regimen is nearly 60 percent less likely to return to crime than those who go untreated.