PRINCIPAL FINDING: Illicit drug use declined among 12-to-17-year-olds from 1997 to 1998, while illicit drug use among the overall population remained level.
 

Purpose of This Report--This report presents the summary findings from the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an annual survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This survey has been the primary source of estimates of the prevalence and incidence of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in the population since 1971. The survey is based on a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States--age 12 years and older. A total of 25,500 persons were interviewed for the 1998 survey; this sample included augmented samples in California and Arizona (4,903 and 3,869 respectively). Summary findings are presented below:
 

Illicit Drug Use
 

• An estimated 13.6 million Americans were current users of illicit drugs in 1998, meaning they used an illicit drug at least once during the 30 days prior to the interview. Although this number is slightly less than the 13.9 million estimate for 1997, the difference is not statistically significant. By comparison, the number of current illicit drug users was at its highest level in 1979 when the estimate was 25.0 million.

• 9.9 percent of youths age 12-17 reported current use of illicit drugs in 1998. This estimate represents a statistically significant decrease from the estimate of 11.4 percent in 1997. The rate was highest in 1979 (16.3 percent), declined to 5.3 percent in 1992, then increased to 10.9 percent in 1995. The percent of youth reporting current use of illicit drugs has fluctuated since 1995 (9.0 percent in 1996 and 11.4 percent in 1997).
• 8.3 percent of youths age 12-17 were current users of marijuana in 1998. The prevalence of marijuana use among youth did not change significantly between 1997 when it was 9.4 percent and 1998 when it was 8.3 percent. Youth marijuana use reached a peak of 14.2 percent in 1979, declined to 3.4 percent in 1992, more than doubled from 1992 to 1995 (8.2 percent), and has fluctuated since then (7.1 in 1996 and 9.4 percent in 1997).

• An estimated 1.8 million (0.8 percent) Americans age 12 and older were current users of cocaine in 1998. The estimate was 1.5 million (0.7 percent) in 1997; but the difference is not statistically significant. Cocaine use reached a peak of 5.7 million or 3.0 percent of the population in 1985.

 
• The percent of youths reporting current use of inhalants decreased significantly from 2.0 percent in 1997 to 1.1 percent in 1998.

• An estimated 4.1 million people met diagnostic criteria for dependence on illicit drugs in 1997 and 1998, including 1.1 million youths age 12-17.

Alcohol Use

• In 1998, 113 million Americans age 12 and older reported current use of alcohol, meaning they used alcohol at least once during the 30 days prior to the interview. About 33 million of this group engaged in binge drinking, meaning they drank 5 or more drinks on one occasion during that 30 day period. 12 million were heavy drinkers, meaning they had 5 or more drinks on one occasion 5 or more days during the past 30 days. The percentages of the population falling into these different groups have not changed since 1988.

 

• Although consumption of alcoholic beverages is illegal for those under 21 years of age, 10.5 million current drinkers were age 12-20 in 1998. Of this group, 5.1 million engaged in binge drinking, including 2.3 million who would also be classified as heavy drinkers. There have been no statistically significant changes in the rates of underage drinking since 1994.

Tobacco Use
 

• An estimated 60 million Americans age 12 and older reported current cigarette use, meaning smoking cigarettes at least once during the 30 days prior to the interview. This estimate represents a rate of 27.7 percent, which is a statistically significant decline from the 1997 rate of 29.6 percent.

 
• The current rate of smoking among young adults age 18-25 has increased from 34.6 percent in 1994 to 40.6 percent in 1997 and 41.6 percent in 1998.

• An estimated 18.2 percent of youths age 12-17, or 4.1 million, were current cigarette smokers in 1998. There was no significant change in this rate between 1997 (19.9 percent) and 1998; the rate for this group has remained relatively stable since 1988.

 
• Youths age 12-17 who currently smoked cigarettes were 11.4 times more likely to use illicit drugs and 16 times more likely to drink heavily than nonsmoking youths.

• The rate of current cigar use among those 12 and older increased from 5.9 percent in 1997 to 6.9 percent in 1998, a statistically significant increase. An estimated 5.6 percent of youths age 12-17 were current cigar smokers in 1998. This compares to 5.0 percent in 1997, not a statistically significant difference.

Perceived Risk and Availability of Drugs
 

• Between 1997 and 1998, there was no change in the percentages of youths age 12-17 reporting great risk from using cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, or alcohol.

• 56 percent of youths age 12-17 reported marijuana was easy to obtain in 1998. 21 percent said it was easy to obtain heroin. 14 percent of youths reported being approached by someone selling drugs during the 30 days prior to the interview. None of these measures changed significantly between 1997 and 1998.

 

Because information on when people first used a substance is collected on a retrospective basis, information on first time use or incidence is always one year behind information on current use.
 

• An estimated 2.1 million persons first used marijuana in 1997. This translates to about 5,800 new marijuana users per day. The rate of first use of marijuana among youths age 12-17 declined significantly from 79 per thousand potential new users in 1996 to 64 per thousand potential new users in 1997. This rate had increased from 38 to 73 between 1991 and 1994; that is, use of marijuana by youths who had never previously used the substance doubled during that time period. The youth incidence rate was stable from 1994 to 1996.

 
• An estimated 81,000 persons used heroin for the first time in 1997. The rate of initiation for youths from 1994 to 1997 was at the highest level since the early 1970s.

• There were an estimated 730,000 new cocaine users in 1997. The rate of new use among youths did not change between 1996 (11.1) and 1997 (10.8). However, there was a statistically significant increase in the rate from 1991 (4.1) to 1997. The 1997 rate for youths is similar to the high initiation rates of the early 1980s.

 
• There were an estimated 1.1 million new hallucinogen users in 1997. The rate of initiation among youths age 12-17 increased between 1991 and 1995, from 11.1 to 25.0 per thousand potential new users, and was constant from 1995 to 1997 (23.9).

• An estimated 2.1 million people began smoking cigarettes daily in 1997. More than half of these new smokers were younger than age 18, which translates to more than 3,000 new youth smokers per day.

 

• In 1998, the prevalence of illicit drug use among persons 12 years and older was 7.2 percent in California, 7.4 percent in Arizona, and 6.1 percent in the rest of the United States. These differences are not statistically significant.

 
• 14.4 percent of the youths age 12-17 in Arizona were current drug users in 1998. The rate in Arizona was significantly greater than the rates in California (9.9 percent) and in the rest of the United States (9.9 percent).

 
• There was no significant change in illicit drug use in California between 1997 and 1998, either for youths or for adults. By contrast there were significant decreases in Arizona during the same period in the rates of illicit drug use among youths age 12-17 and young adults 18-25 years of age.

 
• In 1997 Californians and Arizonians were less likely than other Americans to perceive great risk in using marijuana.

Summary Findings from the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, is retrievable from SAMHSA's internet web site--graphics as well as text--at http://www.samhsa.gov, or a hard copy may be obtained free of charge by calling SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at 1-800-729-6686.
 

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States. News media requests for information on SAMHSA's substance abuse and mental health programs should be directed to Media Services at 1-800-487-4890.