NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE EPIDEMIOLOGIC ...

EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRENDS IN DRUG ABUSE—Los Angeles County
A Semiannual Update of Drug Abuse Patterns and Trends in
Los Angeles County, California
Beth Finnerty, M.P.H. 1
ABSTRACT
Two main themes continue to characterize the Los
Angeles County-level substance abuse situation in
the current reporting period (through June 2004): (1)
a relatively stable or mixed pattern for many drugs
and (2) increasing patterns for a few drugs, specifically
methamphetamine. Despite the facts that Los
Angeles is a distribution hub, transshipment area,
and final destination for most, if not all, major drugs
of abuse and local residents have ready access to
most, if not all, illicit drugs and many diverted pharmaceuticals,
heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine,
and marijuana continue to dominate substance
use/abuse indicator data in Los Angeles. With regards
to treatment admissions, slightly less than one
in four individuals entering a substance abuse treatment
and recovery program in Los Angeles County
self-report a primary heroin problem. Although primary
heroin admissions constitute the largest percentage
of all treatment and recovery admissions,
their lead over the other major substances, such as
alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine, remains
marginal. The proportion of cocaine/crack admissions
remained stable at 18 percent, while admissions
for primary methamphetamine problems climbed
higher in early 2004 to 21 percent of all admissions.
Once again, the Los Angeles HIDTA led all California
HIDTAs in terms of clandestine methamphetamine
laboratory seizures, accounting for more than
one-half of the 331 seizures made in California in the
first half of 2004. Despite the steady decline in the
number of methamphetamine laboratories in Los
Angeles County specifically and the Los Angeles
HIDTA in general, California is home of the domestic
methamphetamine ‘superlab.’ Eighty-three percent
of the 30 superlabs seized within the United
States in the first half of 2004 were located in California;
56 percent of those were located in four
Southern California counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino,
Orange, and Riverside. Drug prices and
purities were relatively stable in the first half of 2004,
with small changes occurring at the midlevel and
retail level for certain drugs. Los Angeles Countylevel
California Poison Control System major drug
exposure calls in the first half of 2004 were dominated
by cocaine/crack, methamphetamine/ampheta-
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mine, ecstasy, and heroin. Furthermore, among prescription
and over-the-counter medication-related
exposure calls, benzodiazepines were the most frequently
mentioned category, followed by opiates/analgesics
and Coricidin HBP. Adolescent substance
use data gathered from the California Healthy Kids
Survey for the 2003–2004 school year illustrated that
lifetime and past-month usage percentages among
Los Angeles County secondary school students in
grades 7, 9, and 11 were either the same or lower
than percentages reported in previous school years.
Aside from alcohol, students were most likely to report
lifetime marijuana use (20 percent), followed by
inhalants (13 percent), cocaine or methamphetamine
(each at 7 percent), and LSD/other psychedelics or
ecstasy (each at 6 percent). Indicator data for prescription
drugs, PCP, LSD, MDMA (ecstasy), and
GHB remained limited, but use and abuse are reported
among some of the nontraditional indicators.
INTRODUCTION
Area Description
1 The author is affiliated with UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Los Angeles, California.
Los Angeles County has the largest population
(9,871,506, 2003 estimate) of any county in the Nation.
If Los Angeles County were a State, it would
rank ninth in population behind California, New
York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio,
and Michigan. Approximately 29 percent of California’s
residents live in Los Angeles County. The
population of Los Angeles County has increased 3.7
percent since the 2000 Census. Nearly 90 percent of
all Los Angeles County residents live within 88 incorporated
cities; the remaining 10 percent reside in
unincorporated areas of the county. The five most
populated cities are, in descending order of population,
Los Angeles (3,694,820), Long Beach (461,522),
Glendale (194,973), Santa Clarita (151,088), and
Pomona (149,473).
Just over one-half of all Los Angeles County residents
are female (50.6 percent) (exhibit 1). More than
one-quarter (28.0 percent) are younger than 18; 10
percent are older than 65. The racial and ethnic composition
of Los Angeles County residents is quite
diverse. Of those residents who report being of one
Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, Vol. II, January 2005