Analysis of Drug Use Among Arrestees

• NCJ Number: 116902
• Author(s): M A Toborg; A M J Yezer; J P Bellassai
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 18 pages
• Corporate Author: Toborg Associates, Inc
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: From the monograph series, 'Assessment of Pretrial Urine-Testing in the District of Columbia.'

Annotation

Major findings from the Pretrial Service Agency's urine testing of arrestees brought through the District of Columbia Superior Court lockup cover the rates and types of drug use, characteristics of users of various drug types as compared with nonusers, how urine-test results compared with defendants' self reports of drug use, and the pretrial release rates of users of various drug types.

Abstract

Data pertain to arrestees processed from April 1984, when the drug-testing program began, through December 1986. Findings indicate that when testing began in March 1984, more than half the tested arrestees used one or more of the five drugs for which tests were conducted. By December 1986 rates of drug use had increased to the point that approximately two-thirds of the tested arrestees were drug positive. In December 1986 arrestees most commonly used cocaine (43 percent), followed by PCP (39 percent). Less than one-half of arrestees testing positive admitted drug use in self-reports. A substantial percentage of defendants in all charge categories were drug users. Women, who composed 18 percent of all arrestees, used drugs at the same rate as men. 1 figure, 9 tables, 9 footnotes.