STUDY TRACKS HARDCORE DRUG USE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Using new ways of counting, federal researchers say the
number of hardcore drug users in Chicago and surrounding Cook County, Ill.
may be three times higher than previous estimates.

The study, released Wednesday by Barry McCaffrey, director of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy, raises the possibility that
the conventional estimate of 13 million regular drug users in the country at
large is far too low.

The Cook County study estimates there are about 330,000 habitual users of
cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin in the urbanized county. Previous studies
estimated the number of residents using drugs other than marijuana at
117,000.

``This is a somewhat unsettling conclusion,'' McCaffrey said of the
Chicago-area findings, and said it raises questions about whether the
national estimate of 13 million hardcore drug users should be larger. ``I
would lean in the direction of saying yes.''

Hardcore use is defined as the use of heroin, powder cocaine or crack
cocaine on eight or more days during at least one of the preceding eight
months, the drug policy office said.

``Hardcore drug users maintain the illegal drug market,'' McCaffrey said, ''
... and they provide a spring from which new epidemics of drug use flow.''

A second survey, the 1997 ``Pulse Check'' tracking national drug abuse
trends based on findings from police and drug treatment sources, found:

- --Heroin use has spread to all regions of the country, a situation McCaffrey
attributed to ``high use, low cost and easy availability.'' He said many
dealers who previously specialized in cocaine now sell heroin as well.

- --The price of crack cocaine is dropping in most areas of the country,
possibly due to a decrease in new users but also because of a possible
increase in supply.

- --Crack cocaine remains the dominant drug in most markets, with users
tending to be older than they were in the early 1990s, suggesting fewer new
users.

The Chicago-area research will be followed up, if Congress approves, by
surveys in other areas of the country, McCaffrey said, emphasizing the need
for accurate estimates of drug users.

Researchers from Abt Associates, a research firm based in Cambridge, Mass.,
interviewed admitted hardcore drug users at jails, drug treatment programs
and homeless shelters, places where McCaffrey said drug abusers are most
likely to be found in substantial numbers. These interviews were combined
with figures on arrests, treatment admissions and shelter stays to estimate
the frequent users of hard drugs.

Abt Associates worked in cooperation with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and
his administration on the three-year survey.