NCJ Number
146282
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 73 Issue: 3 and 4 Dated: special issue (September/December 1993) Pages: 279-289
Date Published
1993
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) Program, initiated by the National Institute of Justice to estimate the extent of psychoactive drug use among arrestees charged with nondrug felonies, is shown to be fairly reliable in this study of 3,297 male and 913 female arrestees in Cleveland, Ohio.
Abstract
Over 90 percent of the Cleveland arrestees agreed to be interviewed, and over 85 percent provided urine samples. Matched with responses obtained during interviews, urinalysis results provided an opportunity to test the reliability of self-reported drug use. Self-reports and urinalysis results agreed for at least 96.9 percent of the cases for nine of 11 drugs. Overall reliability among the nine drug categories was high mainly due to the low use rates of these drugs in the population. For marijuana and cocaine, the most frequently mentioned drugs, overall DUF reliability was much lower. Significant discrepancies were observed between self-reports and urinalysis results with over half of those who tested positive for either marijuana or cocaine. The authors conclude that the DUF urinalysis data base is valuable in estimating the extent of drug use among arrestees but that self-report data are much less reliable. 4 references, 2 tables, and 1 figure