NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE EPIDEMIOLOGIC ...

opolitan Police Department report that both tablet
and powder methamphetamine are visible in the
Washington, DC, club scenes. NFLIS data for Federal
FY 2004 show that approximately 1 percent of
analyzed drug items tested positive for methamphetamine.
The NDIC reported that methamphetamine
sold for $4,800 per one-half pound and 8-balls
sold for $400 during the first 6 months of 2004.
As in the District, the demand for and availability of
methamphetamine in Maryland is extremely low
compared to other drugs. Methamphetamine users in
Maryland tend to be Caucasian males, particularly
youth, those involved with the rave and club scenes,
and middle- to lower-class blue collar workers.
Methamphetamine use is more prevalent in the rural
Western, Eastern, and Southern parts of the State.
From January 2003 to May 2004, law enforcement
officials reported that there were eight methamphetamine
labs seized in Maryland: two in Garrett,
one in Washington, three in Charles, one in Prince
George's, and one in Cecil Counties.
Although there is little indication that methamphetamine
is an emerging problem in the District, there
have been increases in the number of methamphetamine
labs seized in several of the States surrounding
the District. For example, there were 8 methamphetamine
labs seized in Virginia in 1999, compared
to 23 in 2003. In West Virginia and Pennsylvania, the
number of labs seized over this period increased even
more dramatically, from 3 to 52 and from 1 to 49,
respectively.
The Washington Post reported that nearly all of the
methamphetamine seized in Virginia in 2004 was
found in the Shenandoah Valley; methamphetamine
is the primary drug seized along the north-south corridor
between Winchester and Harrisonburg. A special
report on methamphetamine from the Washington/Baltimore
HIDTA explains this trend further. The
cities of Harrisonburg and Strasburg, in particular,
are highlighted by law enforcement as having a substantial
methamphetamine presence. According to
law enforcement, the primary users in these areas are
rural, White, working-class adults, while the sellers
are primarily Latino. Rival Hispanic criminal groups,
such as MS-13 and South Side Locos in Strasburg,
VA, have collaborated in the sale of methamphetamine
since early 2004, increasing the chance that
methamphetamine may increase in the area because
of the presence of MS-13 in Maryland.
Other Drugs
Abuse of club drugs, such as MDMA, gamma hydroxybutyrate
(GHB), and ketamine, is also relatively
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EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRENDS IN DRUG ABUSE—Washington, DC
low in the District. MDMA is the most readily available
and frequently abused “club drug,” selling for
$18–$25 per tablet in the fourth quarter of 2002, according
to the DEA Washington Division. The Washington/Baltimore
HIDTA estimated a slightly lower
range for the cost per dosage unit: $10–$20. MDMA
is most frequently used and distributed by teens and
young adults at raves and nightclubs. MDMA is typically
driven to the District from New York, Philadelphia,
Orlando, and Miami by Dominican and Asian
trafficking organizations.
In the unweighted data accessed from DAWN Live!
for 2004, there were 82 ED reports involving
MDMA, 7 involving GHB, and 8 involving lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD) (exhibit 1b). There was only
one report involving ketamine. MDMA and methylenedioxyamphetamine
(MDA) each accounted for
approximately 1 percent of analyzed drug items
tested through NFLIS in Federal FY 2004. GHB and
ketamine were each found in less than 1 percent of
analyzed drug items tested through NFLIS in Federal
FY 2004. No drug items tested positive for LSD. No
deaths involving club drugs were reported in the
DAWN mortality data from 1997 to 2002 (exhibit 2).
Mentions of benzodiazepines are reported in the
DAWN ED and mortality reports. In the unweighted
DAWN data for 2004, 718 reports involved benzodiazepines.
One death in 2001 was attributed solely to
benzodiazepines (exhibit 2), but in the 1997–2000 time
period, mentions of benzodiazepines in the mortality
data ranged between 10 and 13. In 2002, four deaths
were attributed to multiple drugs, including benzodiazepines.
In the 2004 unweighted DAWN Live! system, there
were 2,438 reports involving alcohol. DAWN mortality
data show that mentions of deaths involving alcohol
in combination with other drugs decreased from
29 in 1997 to 17 in 2001, with a peak of 44 in 1998.
In 2002, however, alcohol-involved deaths more than
doubled to 37 deaths (exhibit 2). In 2003, primary
alcohol admissions accounted for approximately 18
percent of all treatment admissions, a slight decline
from 2000 and 2001 (exhibit 3a).
INFECTIOUS DISEASES RELATED TO DRUG ABUSE
The diagnosis of AIDS cases increased rapidly from
1982 to 1993, when they peaked at 1,342 cases. The
number of cases decreased 49 percent from 1993 to
2001, but cases increased 37.5 percent in 2002. There
were 943 diagnosed cases in 2002, the last year for
which data are available (exhibit 7). Males accounted
for 70 percent of cases diagnosed in 2002. Almost
three-quarters of the diagnoses in 2002 occurred
Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, Vol. II, January 2005