NCJ Number
154682
Date Published
1995
Length
92 pages
Annotation
This report presents data on drug abuse deaths that were reported by medical examiners (ME's) who participated in the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) in 1993.
Abstract
Drug-abuse deaths may be either drug-induced or drug- related. A drug-induced death is any death that involves a drug overdose. In these cases, the medical examiner usually finds or strongly suspects a toxic level. In a drug-related death, the medical examiner concludes that drug usage contributed to the death but was not its sole cause. The current report presents data for the following variables: decedent sex, race/ethnicity, and age; drug concomitance; manner of death; cause of death; and route of drug administration. Total DAWN system summaries for these data items are presented in one chapter, and another chapter focuses on the data pertinent to the most often reported drugs in each of the DAWN metropolitan areas according to sex, age, and race/ethnicity. Trend data for 1990 through 1993 are presented in one chapter. The data tabulated in this report reflect all DAWN drug abuse deaths submitted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration through the June 1994 report month, except for the previously noted exclusions of AIDS cases, homicides, and drug-unknown-only cases. The data show that during 1993, 145 ME's in 43 metropolitan areas reported 8,541 drug-abuse deaths. Seventy-five percent of the cases were male; 76 percent of the cases involved more than one drug. Appendix I presents information on the number of months reported by ME facilities, the ME jurisdictions that participated in DAWN during 1993, and the ME jurisdictions selected for the 1990-93 panel of consistently reporting facilities. Appended DAWN ME data-collection instrument