Comparing Drug Use Rates of Detained Arrestees in the United States and England

• NCJ Number: 175052
• Author(s): B Taylor; T Bennett
• Date Published: April 1999
• Length: 68 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Research Report
• Agencies: NIJ

Annotation

Findings from drug use surveys of 839 arrestees detained in 5 locations in England were compared with those from similar surveys of 4,470 arrestees conducted in 5 matched locations in the United States.

Abstract

The analysis compared urinalysis results for the use of 6 types of drugs, self-reported use of 10 types of drugs, the extent to which drugs were injected, the extent to which arrestees had received drug treatment, the extent to which arrestees wanted to receive drug treatment, the age of first drug use, and the levels of legal and illegal income. The use of heroin/opiates, methadone, and amphetamines tended to be higher among detained arrestees in England than in the United States. The countries were similar for benzodiazepines and marijuana. Crack/cocaine use was significantly higher in the United States. Findings revealed some notable correlations between drug use and various demographic and related characteristics. Few differences existed in the extent to which arrestees received drug treatment or their reported need for it. The report is a product of the recent establishment of the International Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (I-ADAM) program, administered by the National Institute of Justice; the program in the United States was formerly called the Drug Use Forecasting program. Tables, figures, and appended tables and additional methodological information