How many people use crack?

Many Americans who pay close attention to the media believe crack use has substantially diminished since the heyday of its use.  Actually, crack use is the same in 2004 as it was in the late 1980s.

In 2004, almost 470,000 Americans are regular users.  Yet crack use has always been a very small fraction of America’s drug use.

From the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2004:

• In 2004, 19.1 million (7.9%) of Americans aged 12 and over had used some form of illegal drug in the previous 30 days

Compare this to alcohol and tobacco:

• In 2004, more than 120 million (50.3%) of Americans aged 12 and over had drank alcohol in the previous 30 days.

"Regular" crack users (i.e. users who have used crack in the last 30 days) represent only 0.2 percent of the total population, yet the use of crack is consistently called an ‘epidemic’ or a ‘scourge’.   Of the 7.9 percent of Americans currently using illegal drugs, 76.4 percent of them have used marijuana in the past 30 days, compared to 2.4 percent using crack.  In fact, the use of all other illicit drugs apart from heroin showed a higher rate of use than crack.

White Americans had the highest use of crack, accounting for 60 percent of all people who have used crack in the past month and 66 percent of all people who have ever used crack. Black or African Americans have the second highest use of crack, representing 30 percent of all people who have used crack in the past month. Almost 70 percent of all crack users are male.

(Find the full survey at http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nhsda.htm)

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