NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE EPIDEMIOLOGIC ...

A total of 5,425 cocaine arrests was made within the
city of Los Angeles in the first half of 2004. This represented
a 5-percent increase from the number of cocaine
arrests made during the same time period in
2003. Cocaine arrests accounted for 30.4 percent of all
narcotics arrests made between January 1 and June 30,
2004. Citywide cocaine (including crack and powder)
seizures increased 120 percent, from 546.6 pounds
seized in the first half of 2003 to 1,204.1 pounds seized
in the first half of 2004. The street value of the seized
cocaine accounted for 29 percent of the total street
value of all drugs seized in the first half of 2004.
Data from NFLIS for October 2003 to September 2004
showed that out of 54,240 analyzed items reported by
participating laboratories within Los Angeles County,
37.9 percent (20,564) of all items analyzed were found
to be cocaine/crack. Cocaine/crack was the most likely
illicit drug to be found among items tested in the
county, followed closely by methamphetamine.
Los Angeles remains one of the primary markets for
cocaine (in addition to Houston, Chicago, New York,
Atlanta, and Miami; NDIC 2004). Mexican and Colombian
traffickers control the wholesale distribution
of cocaine and crack in Los Angeles; African-
American and Hispanic street gangs control distribution
at the retail level. All substance use and abuse
indicators are higher for crack than for powder cocaine.
Despite this, powder cocaine availability and
use is reported in the area. Current midlevel prices of
crack cocaine remained level (as compared to the June
2004 report) at $500–$1,200 per ounce (exhibit 13), as
did the retail price range ($10–$40 per rock). The current
wholesale price for 1 kilogram of powder cocaine
ranges from $14,000 to $17,000, which is identical to
the wholesale price cited in the past few CEWG reports.
The current midlevel and retail prices of powder
cocaine remained stable, as well, at $500–$600 per
ounce and $80 per gram. The purity of powder cocaine
is approximately 78 percent, similar to the purity cited
in the last few CEWG reports.
Heroin
From January to June 2004, just under 7,000 Los
Angeles County treatment and recovery program
admissions were attributable to primary heroin abuse,
compared with 6,704 admissions reported in the
county in the second half of 2003 (exhibit 3). In
2003, it was thought that heroin admissions were
leveling off at roughly 25.4 percent of all admissions,
after several half-year decreases. In the first half of
2004, however, the proportion of primary heroin admissions
among all Los Angeles County treatment
and recovery programs decreased slightly to 24.5
percent of all admissions. It will be interesting to see
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EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRENDS IN DRUG ABUSE—Los Angeles County
whether heroin admissions continue to decrease in
the remainder of 2004 and into 2005. Despite the
consistent decline over recent years, heroin admissions
continue to marginally account for the highest
percentage of all treatment and recovery program
admissions in the county.
Demographics of heroin admissions have remained
stable over recent reporting periods. In the first half
of 2004, primary heroin admissions were predominantly
male (71.7 percent), more likely to be age 45–
50 (21.0 percent), and somewhat more likely to be
Hispanic (40.2 percent) than White non-Hispanic
(40.0 percent) or Black non-Hispanic (11.9 percent)
(exhibit 5). Compared with other major types of illicit
drug admissions, primary heroin admissions in the
first half of 2004 had the largest proportion of users
age 36 and older (72 percent). Just over one-third (34
percent) of all primary heroin admissions initiated
their heroin use prior to age 18, which is quite low
compared to other primary substances, such as alcohol,
marijuana, methamphetamine, and phencyclidine
(PCP). If primary heroin admissions abused another
drug secondarily to heroin, it was most likely to be
cocaine/crack (21 percent), followed by alcohol (12
percent).
Heroin administration patterns remained stable in the
first half of 2004, with injectors accounting for 86
percent, smokers accounting for 9 percent, and inhalers
(snorters) accounting for 4 percent. When asked
whether they had used any drug intravenously in the
year prior to admission, 88 percent of all primary
heroin admissions reported that they had used needles
to administer one or more drugs intravenously at least
once during the specified time period (exhibit 6).
Sixteen percent of all primary heroin admissions
were homeless at time of admission, and only 4 percent
were referred by the court or criminal justice
system (exhibit 5). Primary heroin users were most
likely to have self-referred themselves for the current
treatment episode (72 percent of all heroin admissions).
In a measure of current legal status, the majority
(75 percent) were not involved at all with the
criminal justice system. This corroborates with the
very low proportion of criminal justice referrals
among primary heroin users. Fifteen percent indicated
that they had never received treatment for their
heroin problem, whereas 50 percent reported three or
more primary heroin treatment episodes. Forty-nine
percent of all primary heroin admissions graduated
from high school, and, at the time of admission, 20
percent were employed full- or part-time.
Preliminary unweighted data accessed from DAWN
Live! for the first half of 2004 indicate that of the
Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, Vol. II, January 2005