Some statistics about illegal drug use in the United States, taken from the most recent available federal data:
Some statistics about illegal drug use in the United States, taken from the most recent available federal data:
-Drug abuse – mostly of heroin, cocaine and marijuana – is responsible for more than 1 million admissions annually to medical facilities for treatment.
-The percentage of people reporting illegal drug use within the past 30 days was 9.3 percent in the West, 7.9 percent in the Midwest, 7.8 percent in the Northeast and 7.4 percent in the South.
-Of 14.2 million arrests in 2007, drug abuse violations accounted for 13 percent – more than 1.8 million. Marijuana busts – mostly for possession rather than sale – accounted for nearly half the drug arrests.
-Drug offenders make up about 20 percent of the state prison population and more than half the federal prison population. In Chicago last year, 87 percent of men arrested and booked by police tested positive for at least one illicit drug.
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