NCJ Number
214385
Date Published
September 2003
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This report presents information and data (collected between March and June 2003) from Maryland's Juvenile OPUS (Offender Population Urinalysis Screening) Detention Study, which is a urinalysis drug monitoring program for juveniles admitted to a Department of Juvenile Justice's detention facility; project goals are to monitor changes in drug use and identify emerging drugs of abuse among juvenile offenders.
Abstract
Of the 291 youths who agreed to provide a urine specimen, 51 percent (39 percent of boys and 51 percent of girls) tested positive for at least 1 drug, mostly marijuana; 36 percent of boys and 41 percent of girls tested positive for marijuana. PCP was detected in 2 percent of the juveniles; four were boys, and five were 16 years old or older. Cocaine was detected in 2 percent of the sample; the five juveniles who rested positive for cocaine ranged in age from 15 to 17; four were boys. Amphetamines were detected in 1 percent of the juveniles; these four juveniles ranged in age from 15 to 17. Two juveniles tested positive for MDMA; and one youth tested positive for opiates, a 17-year-old girl charged with drug possession; she was also positive for cocaine. Trained nursing and detention staff obtained voluntary and anonymous urine specimens from the youths, who were housed in Maryland's five detention facilities. Only juveniles who had been admitted to the facility within the last 72 hours and who had not been transferred from another secure facility were included in the study. A laboratory screened urine specimens for 11 drugs: amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana, methadone, methaqualone, opiates, phencyclidine (PCP), and propoxyphene. 6 tables and 1 figure