What America's Users Spend on Illegal Drugs 1988-2000 - National ...

from TEDS-eligible treatment program. To be TEDS-eligible, a program had to receive publicfunding. Not all TEDS-eligible programs report to the TEDS program, and we made adjustmentsto account for coverage, as suggested by SAMHSA/OAS documentation.Estimates used TEDS data for 1998. We then applied the 1998 estimates to trends based onDUF data. Trends from DUF data were produced in the same way as we estimated trends forcocaine and heroin. A three-year linear projection for 2000 provided a nonsensical result formethamphetamine because of the sharp drop in use from 1997 to 1998. We set the year 2000estimate at the same value as the year 1999 estimate.Data about expenditures by chronic methamphetamine users was sparse, so we computed thesimple average expenditure by chronic amphetamine users across all DUF sites on a yearly basis.We assumed a $200 expenditure for the 1995 anchor year but otherwise projected theexpenditure the same way as for heroin and cocaine.3.0 MarijuanaMarijuana calculations are unchanged from the earlier report. Our estimation procedures aredescribed in the main text. We note here that SAMHSA is redesigning the marijuana module ofthe NHSDA to ask questions about expenditure and use patterns for marijuana. When available,answers to those questions will greatly improve estimates for marijuana consumption andexpenditures.4.0 Other DrugsCalculations for other drugs are unchanged from earlier reports.5.0 Other AdjustmentsTypically we have reported three-year moving averages for most estimates provided in thisreport. That is, an estimate for period T is typically the simple average for periods T-1, T andT+1. For the first period, we used the simple average for period 1 and period 2. For the lastperiod, we used the simple average for period T and T-1. Because of this averaging, trends saylittle about year-to-year changes in the reported measures.We had no data for the year 2000. Estimates for year 2000 are almost always simple linearforecasts based on the previous three years. The exception was for amphetamines, for which athree-year forecast was unreasonable, so we set the 2000 estimate to the 1999 estimate. We usedthe same procedure to back-cast into 1998, which predated the usable DUF data.6.0 CommentsWe see this year’s version of <strong>What</strong> American’s <strong>Users</strong> <strong>Spend</strong> on Illegal Drugs as a bridge between46