Drug Use Forecasting, Annual Report 1991

• NCJ Number: 137776
• Author(s): J A O'Neil
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 23 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Annual/Periodic)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: From "National Institute of Justice Research in Brief," December 1992.

Annotation

This 1991 annual report presents data and information on and generated by the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) Program, which uses drug testing to obtain information on drug use by arrestees.

Abstract

DUF data are collected in booking facilities throughout the United States. For approximately 14 consecutive evenings each quarter, trained local staff obtain voluntary and anonymous urine specimens and interviews from a new sample of booked arrestees. The DUF Program, now in its fifth year, continues to serve as both a practical and effective measure of arrestee drug use and as a model for replicative programs across the Nation. As this annual report indicates, drug use among booked arresteees in many major cities remains high. In San Diego, for example, 75 percent of male arrestees who participated in the DUF program tested positive for a drug. In 20 of the 24 DUF sites, 50 percent or more of all male and female booked arrestees tested positive for a drug. The encouraging news is that marijuana use has declined in all sites. After peaking in 1988 and 1989, cocaine use by arrestees has continued to decline, albeit only slightly. The DUF program continues to refine its procedures. A new computerized interviewing system is being tested. So as to understand more fully the use of opiates among arrestees, DUF interviewers have begun to ask questions about heroin use by arrestees. Initial indications in 1992 were that cocaine remained the drug of choice among arrestees who participated in the DUF program. 19 tables