NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE EPIDEMIOLOGIC ...

Marijuana
Arrests for marijuana-related offenses in San Francisco
County numbered 1,736 in 2000. The count of
arrests ranged between 1,300 and 1,450 in the next 3
years before returning to the 2000 level in 2004.
Among adult male arrestees in the ADAM program
in 2003, 35 percent of those in San Jose and 49 percent
of those in Sacramento tested positive for marijuana.
The median across the 39 ADAM sites was 44
percent. Among female arrestees in San Jose, 29 percent
tested positive, near the 25-site median of 32
percent.
Marijuana treatment admissions in San Francisco
County reached a peak in FY 2003; they then
dropped by 14 percent in FY 2004 (exhibit 2).
In 2004, sinsemilla marijuana sold for $3,000–$6,000
per pound, and domestic marijuana sold for $4,000–
$5,000 per pound. Domestic marijuana sold for about
$200 per ounce. A large, and increasing, quantity of
marijuana is sold legally from medical marijuana
outlets to certified purchasers. There appears to be
effective regulation of price and quality in that new
“market.”
In November 2004, Oakland voters passed Measure
Z by a margin of 65 to 35 percent. This may portend
an important development in American policy on
marijuana, in that Measure Z explicitly instructs the
city of Oakland to create systems for the regulation
and taxation of adult use of marijuana.
According to the NDIC, California remains a leading
producer of domestic marijuana. The State accounted
for more than one-third of outdoor plants eradicated
in 2001 and 2002 and more than two-thirds of those
eradicated from National Forest Service lands. Several
bay area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake,
Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma)
were cited as areas where considerable cultivation
has occurred in recent years.
The overall indications are that marijuana use peaked
in 2001 and has declined significantly since then.
Stimulants
Ethnographic observations suggest an increase in
“speed” use by youth, but no major changes of use
patterns among older adults were reported. Gay
males remain a very prominent portion of the user
population.
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EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRENDS IN DRUG ABUSE—San Francisco Bay Area
Nearly as many methamphetamine reports as heroin
reports appear in the unweighted DAWN Live! data
for the San Francisco area in 2004. About four-fifths
of the ED reports in 2004 involved patients who were
male, about three-fourths involved Whites, and twothirds
involved those older than 30.
The number of treatment admissions for primary
speed problems in the five-county bay area increased
steadily between 1999 and 2004 (exhibit 1). The proportion
of primary speed users among all nonalcohol
drug admissions rose from 13 percent in 1999 to 23
percent in 2003. It was noteworthy that fully 64 percent
of speed users claimed smoking as the preferred
route; the proportions reporting injection or inhalation
as preferred routes were each about one in six.
Amphetamine treatment admissions in San Francisco
County rose steadily from FY 2001 to FY 2004, with
the later year’s count 25 percent higher than the earlier
year’s.
In the three-county bay area, ME death mentions involving
methamphetamine fell from 58 in 1999 to 32
in 2001 and 38 in 2002 (exhibit 3). Of the methamphetamine-related
death mentions in 2000, males
accounted for 93 percent, and the median age was 40.
Two nearby metropolises that are ADAM sites may
give some indication of the methamphetamine situation
in San Francisco. In Sacramento and San Jose,
respectively, 38 and 37 percent of male adult arrestees
tested positive for methamphetamine in 2003.
These were the third and fourth highest proportions
of methamphetamine-positives among male adults in
all the 39 ADAM sites. Among the female arrestees,
45 percent tested positive, the fourth highest among
25 ADAM sites.
According to the NDIC, in 2004 pounds of “crystal”
methamphetamine sold in the $10,000–$13,000
range, ounces in the $600–$1,500 range, and grams
in the $80–$100 range. In 1999, comparable price
ranges were $3,500 to $10,000 for pounds and $500
to $1,000 for ounces. The DEA San Francisco Field
Division reports that Mexican criminal groups control
the local wholesale and midlevel distribution.
Several counties near the bay area (Alameda, San
Mateo, Santa Clara, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and
Stanislaus) have been sites of “superlabs,” capable of
producing 10 pounds or more of methamphetamine
per production cycle.
Methamphetamine use in the bay area is high as
compared to other metropolitan areas of the United
States. Most indicators point to an increase in usage
during the past 3 years.
Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, Vol. II, January 2005