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.
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).