NCSL Substance Abuse Snapshot

Allison Colker, Editor

March 31, 2007

In This Snapshot:

Emerging Issues

Reentering Prisoners Lack Coverage
1.1 Million Kids Huffed Household Products
Emergency Room Visits Climb for Misuse of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs
New Bills Target Excessive Drinking, Substance Abuse on College Campuses

Emerging Issues

Reentering Prisoners Lack Coverage

Due to lack of funding over the last two budget cycles, ex-prisoners in Kansas have not had access to community-based substance abuse treatment for the last two years, says the State Department of Corrections. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has proposed increasing funding for substance abuse treatment by $460,000. In 2005—the last year these programs were funded—the state provided only $155,000 for substance abuse and prevention services. The overall Department of Corrections budget for FY 2007 is $121 million. “Most of the offenders who are [currently] on supervision in Kansas [and] who need evaluation and treatment for substance abuse are accessing the same limited community resources that many other people are accessing,” a spokesmen for the Department of Corrections told the Wichita Eagle. In addition to the limited availability of treatment slots, ex-offenders also are required pay for treatment services out of pocket, which can pose further barriers to care. To learn more about reentering prisoners and substance abuse treatment, see the March 31 issue brief “Reentry and Lack of Coverage.” http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/reentryib.htm

1.1 Million Kids Huffed Household Products

Almost five percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 17 used inhalants to get high in 2005, an increase from 4.1 percent in 2002, while boys remained fairly constant with 4.2 percent reporting use in 2005. Together, the data show that an estimated 1.1 million adolescents used inhalants in the past year, a practice that can often times be fatal.

Inhalants are common household products such as shoe polish, glue, aerosol air fresheners, hair sprays, nail polish, paint solvents, degreasers, gasoline or lighter fluids. Youngsters intentionally inhale these substances to get high. Some suffer “Sudden Sniffing Death” and others become addicted to inhalants. The new federal report, Patterns and Trends in Inhalant Use by Adolescent Males and Females: 2002-2005, notes that overall, the number of adolescents who first used an inhalant to get high in the past year remained stable from 2002 to 2005, with 591,000 youth initiating use of inhalants in 2002 and 605,000 beginning to use inhalants in 2005.

The report, which combined four years of data from 2002-2005 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, found that 30.5 percent of recent inhalant initiates used glue, shoe polish or toluene in the past year. Female recent initiates were more likely than their male counterparts to have used glue, shoe polish or toluene (34.9 percent vs. 25.8 percent). They were also more likely to use other aerosol sprays, including aerosol cleaning products such as computer dusters or furniture polish; air fresheners; and aerosol hair sprays.

Boys who began using inhalants recently were more likely to experiment with nitrous oxide or whippets, 29 percent for males vs. 19.3 percent for females.

The fifteenth National Inhalants and Poisons Week runs March 18 through 25. National Inhalants Prevention Coalition information is available on the web at http://www.inhalants.org/. SAMHSA’s data is available at http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/. NIDA inhalants findings are at http://www.inhalants.drugabuse.gov/.

Emergency Room Visits Climb for Misuse of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs

Emergency room visits related to the non-medical use of pharmaceuticals, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, increased 21 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to the latest estimates from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2005: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits. Visits related to illicit drug use or alcohol were unchanged for the same time period.

According to the DAWN report, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Of the 1.4 million emergency room visits associated with drug misuse or abuse in 2005, 31 percent involved illicit drugs only and 27 percent involved pharmaceuticals only. An additional 36 percent involved combinations of illicit drugs, alcohol, and/or pharmaceuticals. Overall, there were 108 million emergency room visits in U.S. hospitals during the year.

Over half of all the drug-related visits during 2005 involved an illicit drug alone or in combination with another drug. Cocaine was the most frequently cited, with 448,481 visits; marijuana was involved in 242,200 visits; heroin, in 164,572 visits; and stimulants, such as amphetamines and methamphetamine, in 138,950 visits. Other illicit drugs, such as PCP, Ecstasy, and GHB, were involved much less frequently.

About one-third of all drug-related visits involved alcohol in combination with another drug (all ages) or alcohol alone (for patients under 21). Alcohol was most frequently combined with cocaine (86,482 visits), marijuana (33,643 visits), cocaine and marijuana (22,377 visits) and heroin (12,797).

DAWN relies on a national sample of general, non-Federal hospitals operating 24-hour emergency rooms. Estimates for 2005 are based on data submitted by 355 hospitals. In each participating hospital, medical records are reviewed retrospectively to find the emergency room visits that were related to recent drug use.

Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2005: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits is available on the Web at http://dawninfo.samhsa.gov/. Copies may be obtained free of charge by calling SAMHSA’s Health Information Network at 1-877-SAMHSA-7 (1-877-726-4727). Request inventory number SMA 07-4256. For related publications and information, visit http://www.samhsa.gov/.

Related SAMHSA Reports

Misuse of Prescription Drugs: Data from the 2002, 2003 and 2004 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health showed that the annual average number of new abusers of pain relievers exceeded the number of new marijuana users.
The National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS): 2005 showed that the proportion of patients in treatment for both drug and alcohol abuse made up nearly half of all clients.

New Bills Target Excessive Drinking, Substance Abuse on College Campuses

by Matthew Gever

Legislators are looking to crack down on excessive campus drinking, just as new statistics show that students are abusing substances at more dangerous levels.

A new report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) found what Joseph A. Califano, chair and president of CASA, called “an alarming public health crisis on America’s campuses.” For example:

Each month, half of all full-time college students ages 18-22 binge drink (defined as having five or more drinks in one sitting), abuse prescription drugs and/or abuse illegal drugs.

In 2005, almost one in four of these 1.8 million college students met the medical criteria for substance abuse or dependence, almost triple the proportion (8.5 percent) in the general population.

The report suggests a number of steps that states can take to address the problem, including restricting alcohol retail density around campuses, raising alcohol taxes and prohibiting alcohol advertising on campus and at sporting events.

Some states are already tackling the issue in this year’s sessions.

In Massachusetts, Representative Frank Hynes introduced HB 1179, which would ban all alcohol from state campuses, even for students over 21. “A full ban is necessary in order to remove the immediate and proximate availability of alcohol,” said Representative Hynes. “The benefits are clear: an environment less prone to the ill effects of alcohol abuse and a greater ability to be fully engaged in pursuing academic and social activities.” Any student found to be physically or psychologically impaired due to alcohol consumption would be subject to expulsion, regardless of whether the drinking occurred on or off campus.

New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz recently introduced AB 5105, which would authorize the commissioner of education to restrict sales and advertisements of alcoholic beverages at sporting events involving state colleges and universities. The commissioner currently does not have this authorization to do this. “I think we are recognizing what a huge problem drinking is among college students,” said Assemblyman Dinowitz.

Examples from Florida include SB 7056 and SB 1954, which would, among other things, require the Board of Education to annually report on the occurrence of drug and alcohol abuse on the state’s community colleges and universities. The bills also would require the board of trustees at each college and university to establish a plan for reducing and eliminating alcohol and drug abuse on campus.

Public Attitudes Blamed

The CASA report links substance abuse to a number of consequences, such as sexual assaults, campus violence, arrests, suicides and accidental deaths.

The authors place much of the blame on the public’s perception that excessive student drinking is normal. “College presidents are reluctant to take on issues they feel they cannot change and this growing public health crisis reflects today’s society, where students are socialized to consider substance abuse as a harmless rite of passage,” said Reverend Edward Malloy. Malloy was chair of the group that put the study together and is President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. Because of this attitude, many administrators, parents, alumni and others involved in the university turn a blind eye toward student substance abuse or they minimize the extent of the problem, he said.

“By failing to become part of the solution, Pontius Pilate college presidents, deans, trustees and alumni—and parents—have become part of the problem,” said Califano.

Back arrow, return to previous page Back to Snapshot Index

Back arrow, return to previous page Back to Forum Main Page