Risky Behavior - Illicit Drugs Can Land You In The Hospital

DAWN is the benign acronym for the government's Drug Abuse Warning Network. It has been collecting data on drug abuse-related visits to emergency rooms since 1972. The graphic shows that between 1994 and 2000, emergency room visits related to drugs increased 5% for teens (their total population rose 13%). Emergency room visits by adults increased 17% (their population increased 39%). The trend in drug use may be down overall, but drugs still send people to the emergency room. The 1990s were boom times. Research suggests that when there is disposable income, drugs will be readily available.

The DAWN report summarizes the 1999-early 2001 period, noting that in 2000, the four illicit drugs of abuse that most often took users to the emergency room were cocaine, heroin/morphine, marijuana/hashish, and methamphetamine/speed. Alcohol in combination with illicit drugs is frequently mentioned as a contributing factor to the visit. Not surprisingly, the illicit drug most often mentioned by teens in connection with their emergency room visits is marijuana. When asked why they took the substance, the majority of patients answered either "dependence" or "suicide." When it came to marijuana-related visits, however, "psychic effects" was the most common motive for taking the drug.

DAWN reports that in just the one-year period from 1999 to 2000, drug-related emergency room visits for 12-17-year-olds increased 20% to 272 per 100,000 population, lagging behind the 18-25 age group (426 episodes per 100,000) and the 26-34 age group (411 episodes per 100,000). Substances of abuse that had substantial increases in that time period were MDMA (Ecstasy, up 58%) and PCP (up 48%). Drugs like Ecstasy have an undeserved reputation among young people for being safe and non-addictive, and they are relatively affordable. An estimated 12% of 12-18-year-olds have experimented with Ecstasy.

Overall, in the 1999-2000 period, there were significant increases in mentions of heroin (15%), amphetamines (37%), and methamphetamine (29%) in connection with the visits.

Alcohol and cigarettes lead to undramatic deaths after prolonged use — but annual deaths are in the hundreds of thousands. A rash of emergency room visits for drug overdoses will bring headlines about a "drug crisis," even though the actual number of cases might not be very high. For example, the 58% rise in Ecstasy-related visits mentioned above refers to a rise from 2,850 visits in 1999 to 4,511 visits in 2000 (out of the total of 554,767 and 601,563 visits in those years, respectively). If we look back to 1994, we find that Ecstasy, the "club drug" of the 90s, was mentioned in only 253 visits (an increase in visits of 1683% by 2000).

Some of the risk involved with drugs lies in the possibility of ingesting more than one bargained for and ending up in the hospital or dead. It also lies in the possibility of being arrested, as we see next when we look at misconceptions about drug use among African Americans.

Sources: Graphic: Emergency Department Trends from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, Preliminary Estimates January-June 2001 with Revised Estimates 1994-2000; Primary source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2001 update; retrieved July 24, 2002, from http://www.samhsa.gov/oas/dawn/TrndED/2001/Text/TrndEDtxt.PDF. Mortality Data from DAWN, retrieved July 24, 2002, from http://www.samhsa.gov/oas/DAWN/mortality2k.pdf.