Researchers Meet to Discuss Emerging Drug Trends

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ Current and emerging patterns and trends
in drug abuse will be discussed at the 42nd meeting of the Community
Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG) to be held June 2427 at the Madison Hotel in
Washington, D.C. The CEWG is a network of researchers and public health
officials from 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas who meet semiannually to
share their region's current patterns and trends of drug abuse. This meeting
will also include international findings from members of the International
Epidemiology Work Group on Drug Abuse (IEWG). The meeting will be held under
the auspices of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National
Institutes of Health.

"For 21 years, the CEWG has given the country frontline reports on emerging
drug use trends in the United States," notes Dr. Alan 1. Leshner, Director of
NIDA. "Advance knowledge of new forms of drug use, such as marijuana
'blunts', and reports of localized drug use problems from these important
urban areas are invaluable to our understanding of drug use nationwide."

The CEWG model, which uses information from regional public health agencies,
medical and treatment facilities, criminal justice and correctional offices,
law enforcement agencies, drug use surveys, and other sources, has been
adapted successfully at local, State, and international levels.

The report from the previous CEWG meeting, held in December 1996, indicated
rises in marijuana use based on increases in marijuanarelated emergency room
mentions and drug treatment admissions and other data. There was also a rise
in new heroin users snorting the drug rather than injecting the drug.
Details of these and other findings are in the Advance Report of the
December 1996 Meeting of the Community Epidemiology Work Group, available
from the National Clearinghouse on Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) at
18007296686.

The CEWG is a network of researchers from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver,
Detroit, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Newark, New
Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, St.
Louis, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and from the State of Texas. Specific
information sources include the treatment data from State substance abuse
agencies; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's
Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN); the National Institute of Justice's Drug
Use Forecasting (DUF) System; and seizure, price, purity,
prescription/distribution, and arrest data from the Drug Enforcement
Administration and State and local law enforcement agencies. CEWG meetings
are held in winter and summer each year.

The international component of this meeting, on June 26 and 27, will include
presentations from researchers and discussions among health officials and
academicians representing the United Nations International Drug Control
Program, the Council of Europe and the European Union, the Organization of
American States, and the World Health Organization. Other representatives
from selected countries, including Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, South
Africa, and Spain will also participate.

Dr. Leshner and Mr. Jeremy Travis, Director of the National Institute of
Justice, will cochair an international panel during the meeting focusing on
the effective use of epidemiologic data in developing a research agenda,
public health policy, and delivery of treatment and prevention services.

The press are invited to attend the meeting from June 2527. To register or
arrange interviews, please call the NIDA press office at 3014436245.

NIDA supports more than 85 percent of the world's research on the health
aspects of drug abuse and addiction and carries out a large variety of
programs to disseminate research information.

SOURCE National Institute on Drug Abuse