NCJ Number
178780
Date Published
January 1999
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the relationships between alternative
law enforcement and public health indicators of cocaine, heroin
and marijuana use for a sample of large U.S. cities.
Abstract
It is unclear how closely arrest statistics, the leading law
enforcement indicator of illicit drug use, correspond to other
law enforcement indicators such as urine tests of jail inmates,
or to public health measures such as emergency departments’ and
medical examiners’ reports. This study found profound convergence
across measurement systems in cocaine and heroin use, but little
convergence for marijuana use. In addition to other research and
policy implications, these results increase confidence in the use
of arrest data to assess variation across urban areas in cocaine
and heroin use. The fact that drug arrests inevitably reflect
enforcement activity does not invalidate them as a measure of
underlying drug-using behavior. Notes, tables, figure,
references, appendix
Date Published: January 1, 1999