CEWG January 09 Full Report - National Institute on Drug Abuse

EpidEmiologic TrEnds in drug AbusE: HigHligHTs And ExEcuTivE summAry
between $700–$3,000 per pound, according to the
NDIC. Among prescription drugs, those most
often cited in ethnographic reports as being used
without prescription were Xanax
® , Vicodin ® ,
Klonopin , clonidine, and methadone. MDMA
was popular
®
in low-income African-American
neighborhoods. Primary users were in their teens
and twenties, but use by middle-aged persons was
often reported. Prices have declined to $10 per
tablet on the South Side and $10–$15 on the West
Side. Nonprescription buprenorphine (Suboxone
) use was increasingly common among
heroin
®
users, who mainly used it to avoid withdrawal
or to better manage their addiction. Injection
and recreational use of Suboxone was rare.
Drug injection by young African Americans
®
was
rare. New injection drug users were likely to be
White and to reside in suburban Chicago. HIV/
AIDS Update: The prevalence and incidence of
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
among injection drug users (IDUs) has declined
markedly, compared with the 1980s and 1990s.
HIV prevalence among injecting and noninjecting
drug users is converging in low-income Chicago
neighborhoods.
Data Sources: Treatment data for the State
of Illinois and Chicago for FYs 2000–2007 (July 1–
June 30) were provided by the Illinois Division of
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. An update was
not available. ED data were derived for the first half
of CY 2008 from the DAWN Live! restricted-access
online query system administered by the Offce
of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The
DAWN Live! data are unweighted and are not
estimates for the reporting area. These data cannot
be compared with DAWN data from 2007 and
before, nor can these preliminary data be used for
comparison with future data. Criminal justice
data were available from the Illinois Criminal Justice
Information Authority (ICJIA), which collects,
maintains, and updates a variety of criminal justice
data to support its research and evaluation efforts.
ICJIA regularly publishes criminal justice research,
evaluation reports, and statistical profiles. ICJIA’s
drug arrest data for 2005–2006 and the 2004 special
report on methamphetamine trends in Illinois were
reviewed. Survey data on student and household
populations were derived from two sources. The
2007 Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System,
prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), provided drug use data representative
of 9th through 12th grade students in public
and private schools. Data on substance use and
abuse for State of Illinois were provided by SAMH­
SA’s <strong>National</strong> Survey on Drug Use and Health for
2005 and 2006. Price and purity data for heroin
for 1991–2007 were provided by the DEA’s HDMP.
The Illinois State Police, Division of Forensic Science,
provided purity data on drug samples for
2007. Drug price data are reported from the June
2007 and December 2007 reports of <strong>National</strong> Illicit
Drug Prices by the NDIC. Data from NFLIS for FY
2008 were used to report on drugs items identified
in forensic laboratories after being seized by law
enforcement in Chicago. Ethnographic data on
drug availability, prices, and purity are from observations
and interviews conducted by the Community
Outreach Intervention Projects, School of
Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago.
HIV prevalence data for 2005–2008 were derived
from the ongoing NIDA-funded “Sexual Acquisition
and Transmission of HIV – Cooperative Agreement
Program” (SATH-CAP) study in Chicago
(U01 DA017378). Respondent-driven sampling
was used at multiple sites in Chicago to recruit men
and women who use “hard” drugs (cocaine, heroin,
methamphetamine, or any illicit injected drug),
men who have sex with men regardless of drug use,
and sex partners linked to these groups. All participants
(n=3,220) in this ongoing study completed a
computerized self-administered interview and were
tested for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea.
SATH-CAP data were compared with findings
from earlier studies of IDUs sponsored by NIDA
and the CDC. Several 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.
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Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, <strong>January</strong> 20<strong>09</strong>