NCJ Number
192927
Date Published
2001
Length
115 pages
Annotation
This report provides information on drug-related emergency department (ED) episodes collected through the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) from 1990 to 2000.
Abstract
The DAWN system provides information on some health consequences of drug use in the United States as shown by drug-related visits to hospital emergency rooms. Hospitals eligible for DAWN are non-Federal, short-stay, general hospitals that have 24-hour emergency departments in the United States. Within each facility that participates in DAWN a designated DAWN reporter is responsible for reviewing medical charts to identify drug abuse episodes eligible for inclusion in DAWN. The report contains sections on the annual trends in total drug episodes, the annual trends in cocaine mentions, the annual trends in heroin/morphine mentions, the annual trends in marijuana/hashish mentions, the annuals trends in other illicit drug mentions, the annual trends in prescription and over-the-counter drug-related episodes, the annual trends in selected metropolitan areas, and a discussion of results. Some of the highlights of the report include: the four drugs mentioned most frequently in ED reports were alcohol-in-combination (204,524 mentions), cocaine (174,896), heroin/morphine (97,287), and marijuana/hashish (96,446); from 1990 to 2000, total drug-related episodes increased 62 percent; cocaine related episodes made up 29 percent of all ED drug episodes in 2000; heroin/morphine was mentioned in 16 percent of ED drug episodes in 2000; marijuana/hashish was mentioned in 16 percent of drug-related episodes in 2000; methamphetamine/speed was mentioned in 2 percent of drug related episodes; ED mentions of PCP/PCP combinations increased 32 percent from 1999 to 2000. Appendices and tables