NCJ Number
204638
Date Published
September 2003
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This annual report presents information analyzed by the Maryland Drug Early Warning System (DEWS) identifying changes in substance abuse trends in the State from 1998 to 2001 using six drug indicators.
Abstract
The Substance Abuse Indicators Project, supported through the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) is a key component of the Maryland Drug Early Warning System (DEWS) and involves the acquisition, monitoring, and analysis of six key drug indicators in the State, utilized since 1998: (1) student drug use, (2) drug-related student suspensions, (3) treatment admissions, (4) overdose deaths, (5) substance-related traffic crashes, and (6) drug-related arrests. State-level substance abuse data were analyzed by DEWS to identify changes in trends. This report examines State-level data from the above listed six drug indicators, from 1998 to 2001. Highlighted findings include: (1) during the 2000-2001 school year, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana were the 3 most widely used substances reported by Maryland public school 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students; (2) the only notable increase between the 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 school years was lifetime designer drug use among 12th graders, increasing from about 8 percent to 13 percent; (3) suspensions for dangerous substances made up 4 percent of total suspensions in Maryland public schools from 2001-2002; (4) suspensions due to illegal drugs increased 15 percent during 1997 to 2001 from 1,811 to 2,075 suspensions; (5) in 2002, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana were the most frequently mentioned substances of abuse among Maryland treatment clients; (6) mentions for the four most prevalent substances were at a 5-year high in 2002; (7) in 2002, there were a total of 605 overdose deaths in Maryland; (8) overdose deaths increased by approximately 24 percent over the past 5 years from 490 in 1998 to 605 in 2002; (9) in 2002, narcotics-related deaths accounted for the largest percentage of overdose, making up 84 percent of total overdose deaths in the State; (10) in 2001, there were a total of 8,754 traffic crashes involving an alcohol- and/or drug-involved driver, up from totals in 2000 and 1998; (11) alcohol- and/or drug-related injury and property damage crashes have remained stable since 1998; (12) in 2001, 52,711 drug-related arrests were made in the State; and (13) in 2001, the majority of drug-related arrests were for opium/cocaine derivatives, marijuana, and other drugs, such as synthetic narcotics and dangerous non-narcotics. Tables, charts, and appendices A-C