Other Drugs Supplanting Cocaine Use

Methamphetamine, Heroin on the Rise, White House Reports

By Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 1997; Page A01
The Washington Post

Heroin and methamphetamine are rapidly supplanting crack cocaine as
the drug of choice among many hardcore addicts, while a variety of
"boutique drugs," along with marijuana, are gaining favor among young
people, according to a nationwide study issued yesterday by the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Although cocaine continues to be widely used, the report found that
the popularity of both crack and powdered cocaine is declining and
that young users in particular have come to disdain crack as a "ghetto
drug."

Last year, methamphetamine became the most commonly used drug by
persons seeking treatment in the San Diego area and several other
parts of the West and Midwest, according to the drug report, known as
"Pulse Check." In Los Angeles, methamphetamine, a highly addictive
stimulant commonly known as speed, ranked close behind crack cocaine
as the second most common cause of admission to treatment programs,
the report said.

The report, which is issued twice yearly, reflects information drawn
from law enforcement officials, treatment providers and other experts
on drug abuse. It is designed to identify trends in drug use and to
supplement longerterm research based on population surveys. The
report issued yesterday details trends observed in the second half of
1996.

The substitution of heroin and methamphetamine for cocaine depicted in
the new report "gives us a heads up on what we'll be seeing down the
line," said retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the drug
control policy office, at a news conference.

"It's possible we're seeing methamphetamine, the poor man's cocaine,
replacing, to some extent, crack cocaine as the principal stimulant
drug . . . It's a problem of devastating consequences," McCaffrey
said. And while methamphetamines are gaining ground in the West and
the Midwest, McCaffrey added, "we're seeing heroin possibly beginning
to replace crack in the urban centers" of the East.

McCaffrey cited the report's findings as further justification for his
proposed $175 million antidrug media campaign, which is now before
Congress, and for a broad antidrug strategy that emphasizes increased
spending on prevention programs.

As the changing patterns of drug use show, McCaffrey said, "it's a
dynamic process, it does respond to pressures, societal pressures,
news media intervention, education and prevention."

The media campaign is the largest new initiative in the Clinton
administration's drug strategy, which the White House presented to
Congress earlier this year. The administration proposal calls for $175
million in federal spending in the first year of a proposed fiveyear
effort, with private money matching that sum for the purchase of
broadcast, print, billboard and Internet messages designed to reach 90
percent of all youths age 9 to 17 with an antidrug message at least
four times a week. McCaffrey disclosed yesterday that his office will
put out a $400,000 contract later this summer to develop an antidrug
campaign on the Internet and said it will be up and running when the
new federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

"If you go on the Internet right now," McCaffrey said, "it's dominated
by prodrug, druglegalization opportunities to learn; you know, High
Times, interactive video. And the more objective, scientific, socially
responsible thinking almost isn't there."

McCaffrey also confirmed that the federally supported media campaign
will not take aim at alcohol and tobacco use by young people despite
extensive evidence cited by McCaffrey yesterday in another context
showing a high correlation between teenage smoking and the eventual
use of illegal drugs.

National surveys show that the number of occasional cocaine users
dropped from some 7 million people in the mid1980s to about 2.5
million in the mid1990s and has remained stable since then.
Similarly, both survey data and reporting from hospital emergency
rooms indicate that the number of hardcore cocaine users, who
generally favor crack, has also remained stable at about 400,000
persons for the past few years.

While confirming those trends, the report issued yesterday highlighted
the rapidly expanding use of methamphetamines. This powerful stimulant
has been part of the drug culture for decades, but it has often been
associated with specific and somewhat isolated niches, such as
motorcycle gangs. McCaffrey yesterday cited the potential for a much
more generalized epidemic associated with methamphetamines unless
dramatic action is taken to counter it.

In describing its spread, McCaffrey said, "the analogy to cancer may
be a very helpful one. . . . it pops up in very unpredictable
manners." While it once seemed confined to the West Coast,
methamphetamine use, McCaffrey said, has "become the dominant threat
to law enforcement in parts of Missouri and Kansas."

As part of a federal effort to counter this threat, new penalties were
established for methamphetamine production last year, and new controls
were established over the chemicals that go into its manufacture.

"If we get going, we won't get bowled over as we were by crack cocaine
in the 1980s," McCaffrey said.

Aside from increased methamphetamine and heroin use, the study also
highlighted the growing use by young people of a variety of
hallucinogenics and sedatives, grouped under the broad category of
"Boutique Drugs." The category includes drugs such as LSD, as well as
a variety of pharmaceuticals. While the mix of drugs varies by
geographic region, the report noted a trend toward "cafeteria use" of
several different drugs.

"Many treatment providers report that teens and young adults enter
treatment with a number of these drugs and alcohol, rather than a
single drug, as their primary problem," the report said.

SPEED IS BACK

Methamphetamine, a powerful central nervous system stimulant, has
reemerged in the 1990s.

History: Based on drugs used in inhalers and decongestants and to
treat narcolepsy and obesity. Widely available in the 1950s and '60s.

Effects: Keeps user awake for a long time and temporarily produces
sense of energy and enhanced physical and mental performance.

Dangers: Highly addictive; can cause paranoid and violent behavior.
Overdose can lead to psychosis and death.

Forms: Can be snorted, eaten, injected or smoked.

Production: Made domestically and imported in processed form. Recipes
abound on the Internet.

Street names: Speed, crank, ice, crystal meth.

SOURCE: Office of National Drug Control Policy

(c)Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company