NCJ Number
162529
Journal
Statistics in Medicine Volume: 14 Dated: (1995) Pages: 655-668
Date Published
1995
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article examines the relationship of the price and purity of cocaine to emergency room visits and deaths associated with cocaine use and to cocaine use among arrestees.
Abstract
A model was developed for the trend in cocaine prices at the retail level during the period January 1986 to December 1991. This trend was compared to information on emergency room visits, medical examiner reports, and the percentage of arrestees testing positive for cocaine use over the same period. The principal conclusion is that there is a significant negative relationship between the estimated street price of cocaine and the level of related medical emergencies and deaths and the number of arrestees who test positive for cocaine. Price data for this study were derived from an analysis of the System to Retrieve Drug Evidence, comprising laboratory analysis of drug purchases by Drug Enforcement Administration agents during undercover operations. Indirect use data are from three sources: emergency room admissions where cocaine is cited as an agent in seeking emergency treatment (from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, DAWN); medical examiner data where the presence of cocaine is noted (also from DAWN); and the percentage of arrestees testing positive for cocaine in jails (from the Drug Use Forecasting system, DUF). A cross-section time-series methodology was used to estimate the relationship between the price of cocaine and these three indicators of use. Tables, figures, appendix, references