NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE EPIDEMIOLOGIC ...

that targets young injection drug users (IDUs)
and their parents. Participants are aged 18–25
and have injected in the last 6 months (n=547 as
of December 2004). All data from the Family
Process Study are preliminary. Current noninjecting
heroin users (NIHUs) age 16–30 were
recruited for the NIDA-funded NIHU Study to
evaluate the rate of transition to injecting and
drug and sexual practices associated with HIV,
hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C (HCV) infections
(n=618 as of June 2004).
• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
and HIV data were derived from both agency
sources and UIC studies. IDPH and CDPH surveys
provided statistics on AIDS and HIV
through October 2004 and December 2003, respectively.
The CDPH Office of HIV/AIDS Surveillance
provided data through 2003 (2003 data
are preliminary). CDC’s “HIV/AIDS Surveillance
Report,” December 2001, provided additional
data on HIV and AIDS. The agency data
are complemented by UIC’s studies of IDUs
conducted by COIP at UIC’s School of Public
Health. One is the NIDA-funded “AIDS Intervention
Study,” based on a panel of IDUs participating
from 1988 to 1996. The second is the
CDC-funded HIV Incidence Study (CIDUS I and
II). The CIDUS data are from analyses of a
1994–1996 study of 794 IDUs, age 18–50, in
Chicago (Ouellet et al. 2000) and a 1997–1999
study of 700 IDUs, age 18–30, in Chicago and
its suburbs (Thorpe et al. 2000; Bailey et al.
2001). Most sources have not been updated since
the Chicago CEWG December 2002 report.
As noted above, many of the sources traditionally
used for this report have not been updated by their
authors or were unavailable at the time this report
was generated. Because some information has not
changed—and to avoid redundancy—this report occasionally
refers readers to a previous Chicago
CEWG report for more information in a particular
area. For a discussion of the limitations of survey
data, the reader is referred to the December 2000
Chicago CEWG report.
DRUG ABUSE PATTERNS AND TRENDS
This report of drug abuse patterns and trends is organized
by major pharmacologic categories. Readers
are reminded, however, that multidrug consumption
is the normative pattern among a broad range of substance
abusers in Chicago. Various indicators suggest
that drug combinations play a substantial role in drug
use prevalence. The latest DAWN data show that 18
percent of all reported ED drug mentions in Chicago
EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRENDS IN DRUG ABUSE—Chicago
between July and December 2002 were alcohol-incombination
mentions, similar to previous reporting
periods for Chicago and comparable to proportions in
nationwide reports.
According to DAWN ED data, Chicago was reporting
the highest ED drug mentions among the 21
DAWN sites between 2000 and 2002. Both DAWN
mortality cases and CDPH death certificates suggest
that total drug-related deaths have remained stable at
high numbers between 2000 and 2002. According to
APORS, 718 children in Chicago were exposed to
some drug at birth in 2002, which corresponds to an
annual rate of 150 exposures per 10,000 live births.
Cocaine/Crack
The majority of quantitative and qualitative cocaine
indicators suggest that use remains stable at high levels
and that cocaine continues to be a serious drug
problem for Chicago and Illinois.
In 2002, both the DAWN ME drug-induced or drugrelated
death data and CDPH death certificate data
showed that cocaine remains a factor in more deaths
in the Chicago area than any other illicit drug. However,
multiple-drug use was involved in 65 percent of
these cases.
In 2002, ED mentions for cocaine remained at high
levels, and they represented a 52-percent increase
over 10,702 mentions in 1995. Chicago continued to
have the most cocaine ED mentions among DAWN
sites in 2002 (16,227 mentions) and the highest rate
of mentions (275 per 100,000 population) (exhibit 1).
Preliminary data accessed from DAWN Live! for
2003 and 2004 show that slightly more than one-third
of total ED reports were cocaine related (34 and 36
percent, respectively). In 2004, the majority of the
cocaine reports involved males (66 percent), African-
Americans (57 percent), and those between 30 and 54
years of age.
According to the Illinois Poison Center, approximately
120 cocaine-related calls have been received
annually in Chicago for the past 3 years (2001–2003).
During this period, cocaine generated more calls than
any other “street drug” (approximately 25 percent of
all “street drugs”).
The FY 2003 Illinois drug treatment report indicates
that cocaine abuse remained one of the most frequent
reasons for entering treatment (excluding primary
alcohol-only abuse) (exhibit 2). A total of 33,882
persons were treated for cocaine-related problems in
Illinois during FY 2003, of which nearly one-half
occurred in Chicago. Cocaine was the most com-
Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, Vol. II, January 2005 53