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Drug Addiction Statistics

Drug addiction statistics are used to determine drug trends ranging from abuse to legal consequences. Many networks have been established to provide cutting edge drug addiction statistics in the United States and across the world. These networks use information gathered from emergency room visits, medical examiners, and coroners to name a few. Once this information is gathered, it is then categorized by its informational content and compared to similar drug addiction statistics in the recent past. This information shows the "popularity", trends, and deaths caused directly or indirectly by particular drugs.

Drug addiction statistics can benefit the public by displaying factual evidence that certain drugs are becoming a problem. Also, drug addiction statistics show the growing trends of drug use which will give us a look to the future. Hopefully, this will help in preventing the rise of drug addiction.

In one research study, approximately 1 in 5 people between the ages of 16 and 59 said that they had taken at least one of the drugs mentioned.
People ages 18 to 21 were most likely to admit having taken drugs with almost half (46%) claiming to have taken them.
More men than women said that they had taken drugs. 24% of men and 16% of women had taken at least one kind of drug in their lives. Amongst those ages 18-21; 51% of men and 38% of women had taken drugs.
More men than women had experienced taking more than one drug at a time. 52% of men but only 36% of women who had taken drugs had taken more than one type.
Marijuana was the most commonly used drug, experienced by 12% of all participants and 24% of those ages 18 to 25.
19.5 million people over the age of 12 use illegal drugs in the United States (Mayo Clinic).
19,000 deaths occurred from drug addiction in the US (Mayo Clinic).
9,102 persons died of drug-induced causes in 1999 USA (NVSR Sep 2001).
Death rate extrapolations for drug addiction in the United States: 19,102 per year, 1,591 per month, 367 per week, 52 per day, 2 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second.
Emergency department visits involving Ecstasy increased 58 percent in the United States, from 2,850 visits in 1999 to 4,511 in 2000.
The number of emergency department visits involving heroin/morphine increased 15%, from 84,409 to 97,287.
There were 601,776 estimated drug-related emergency department episodes in 2000. Among these, there were 1,100,539 drug mentions. Keep in mind, more than one drug may be in a person's system at the time of admission.
Alcohol in combination with other drugs was the most frequently mentioned drug at time of emergency department admission (204,524), followed by cocaine (174,896), heroin/morphine (97,287), and marijuana (96,446).
From 1999 to 2000, emergency department mentions of prescription drugs containing oxycodone increased 68%(from 6,429 to 10,825), and mentions of drugs containing hydrocodone increased 31% (from 14,639 to 19,221).
From 1998 to 2000, mentions of oxycodone and hydrocodone increased 108%.
Employed drug abusers cost their employers about twice as much in medical and worker compensation claims as their drug-free coworkers.
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug. In 2001, it was used by 76% of current illicit drug users.
In 2001, an estimated 15.9 million Americans ages 12 or older were current illicit drug users, meaning they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey interview. This estimate represents 7.1% of the population ages 12 years old or older.
The percentage of the population using illicit drugs increased from 6.3% in 1999 and 2000 to 7.1% in 2001. Between 2000 and 2001, statistically significant increases were noted for the current use of marijuana (4.8 to 5.4%), cocaine (0.5 to 0.7%), pain relievers (1.2 to 1.6%), and tranquilizers (0.4 to 0.6%).
There were 19,102 deaths from drug-induced causes in 1999 (legal and illegal drugs).
The number of persons with drug addiction problems increased from 14.5 million (6.5 percent of the population) in 2000 to 16.6 million (7.3%) in 2001.
In 1999 there were 179,000 treatment admissions for primary injection drug addiction and 34,000 admissions for secondary injection drug addiction.
Opiates accounted for 83% of admissions for injection drug addiction, followed by methamphetamine/amphetamine (11%), and cocaine (5%)
Among 1999 injected drug admissions, persons admitted for injecting opiates averaged 14 years of use before entering treatment for the first time. Those admitted for injecting methamphetamine/amphetamine averaged 12 years, and for cocaine 13 years.