NCJ Number
154190
Date Published
1993
Length
139 pages
Annotation
This report contains the proceedings of the fourth meeting (November 8, 1993) of the Maryland Statewide Epidemiology Workgroup (SEWG), which was established in 1992 to track, monitor, and analyze trends and patterns of use and abuse of legal and illegal substances throughout Maryland, with a focus on SEWG member counties and Baltimore City.
Abstract
Specific objectives of the work group are to provide accurate and timely assessment of local alcohol and drug abuse trends, identify emerging drugs of abuse, determine at-risk populations and environments for program interventions, identify measures for program evaluation and resource allocation, and develop baselines for local program initiatives. SEWG representatives of participating jurisdictions are responsible for forming Drug Epidemiology Networks (DEN's). Each DEN -- composed of representatives from local law enforcement, treatment, prevention, education, and public health agencies -- analyzes local indicators for patterns and trends in the local drug problem. The meeting in November 1993 continued to address the issue regarding the extent to which program practitioners -- law enforcement, treatment, and prevention professionals -- report and interpret social-indicator data in a way that is useful to their local agencies and to state drug policy and program officials. This meeting included presentation of reports by DEN members, followed by discussion among DEN members and State agency representations, as well as the presentation of reports from State agency representatives and other guest speakers regarding relevant indicators and survey data. The report highlights drug data included in DEN reports submitted at the November 1993 meeting. It also includes the agenda for the meeting, summaries of the speakers' presentations, an SEWG membership list, and a list of attendees. Appended results of the November 1993 MD/SEWG meeting evaluation and the reports submitted by the DEN's