HARD-CORE DRUG USERS UNDERCOUNTED

WASHINGTON -- The number of hard-core drug users in America is being
vastly underestimated by faulty surveys, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the
White House drug czar, said Wednesday. He announced a new method of
monitoring the worst addicts.

A pilot test of the new system, conducted in the Chicago area, tripled
the number of hard-core addicts counted. The system focuses on
interviewing drug abusers in places like jails and homeless shelters
where they haven't previously been counted. Previous surveys counted
only those living in homes.

``The number of drug addicts didn't change; the picture of the problem
just got more accurate,'' McCaffrey said.

He said hard-core users are the backbone of the illegal drug market --
a major source of crime and diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis
and AIDS.

A hard-core drug user was defined as someone who has used heroin or
cocaine (crack or powder) on eight or more days during one of the two
preceding months.

New estimates will help the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
which McCaffrey heads, make better strategic decisions on how best to
spend the nation's $17 billion anti-drug budget.

The test survey in Chicago found that 73 percent of hard-core users
were male, 74 percent were black, 64 percent had been using drugs for
more than five years and about 80 percent used cocaine or crack
exclusively.

13 Million Drug Users

McCaffrey's office estimates there are about 13 million drug users in
the United States, down from a high of 25 million people in 1979. The
users cost society $70 billion a year in medical expenses, crime and
lost income. About 16,000 addicts die each year.

McCaffrey said results of the Chicago survey could not be extrapolated
to produce a revised estimate of the number of hard-core drug users
nationally because the test study reflected the patterns in a single
community.

But he said it was clear that when the new survey method is applied
nationally, the results will show that a significantly larger
hard-core drug problem exists.

His office plans to use the new survey method in an entire region of
the country, and then expand nationwide. He did not say which region
might be first.

Even with the new survey methods, McCaffrey said some populations of
drug users are still not being counted.

``If I was a Yale graduate with a crack addiction and I went into
private treatment, I wouldn't show up in this study,'' he said.

McCaffrey said overall drug use is down 50 percent and cocaine use is
down 75 percent since 1985, while drug use by teens has been climbing
since 1991.

McCaffrey released results of a separate national survey conducted
late last year that showed a rapid spread of heroin addiction and
rising use of inhalants among young people.

That survey of police, doctors and local officials indicated the
prices of crack cocaine and heroin are falling, feeding a national
boom in heroin use. The crack cocaine market has remained stable and
it is still the dominant drug in most areas.

But with the price of heroin low, sources in Miami, Atlanta and
Bridgeport, Conn., say crack users are starting to use heroin along
with crack or are switching altogether, according to the survey.

Inhaling woes grow

The survey showed that inhaling of glue, paint, aerosols and cleaning
fluids is gaining popularity in areas like Washington, Columbia, Md.,
and San Antonio, Texas.

Another emerging drug is methamphetamine, which is being used more in
the West, Southwest and Hawaii.