Cocaine in the United States

Cocaine is the second most popular illegal recreational drug in the United States behind marijuana,[1] and the U.S. is the world's largest consumer of cocaine.[2] Cocaine is also used legitimately as a prescription drug. Cocaine is commonly used in middle to upper class communities. It is also popular among college students as a party drug. Its users span over different ages, races, and professions.

1950s and 1960s

The popularity of cocaine faded in the 50s and by the late 50s many considered the drug to be a problem of the past. Cocaine became popular in America again in the 60s, undergoing a re-emergence of kind. [3]

1970s and 1980s

In the 1970s and 1980s, the drug became particularly popular in the disco culture as cocaine usage was very common and popular in many discos such as Studio 54, even spawning open publications such as Adam Gottlieb's 1976 classic If you enjoy The Pleasures of Cocaine this book may save your life which appealed to the collective experience of prohibition to call for legalization:

“ The path of cocaine as it stands in the streets of today offers dangers not only inherent in the pharmacology of the alkaloid itself, but also in the bizarre assortment of adulterants which are added to it by black market middlemen. This is what happens when a popular substance is made illegal. We have lived this nightmare before and still have not learned. ”
— Adam Gottlieb, The Pleasures of Cocaine, 1976.

1990s

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) reported in 1999 that cocaine was used by 3.7 million Americans, or 1.7% of the household population age 12 and older. Estimates of the current number of those who use cocaine regularly (at least once per month) vary, but 1.5 million is a widely accepted figure within the research community. In 2001, more Hispanics received sentences for crimes relating to powder cocaine than any other ethnicity while more African Americans were convicted of crimes relating to crack cocaine in the United States.

Although cocaine use had not significantly changed over the six years prior to 1999, the number of first-time users went up from 574,000 in 1991, to 934,000 in 1998 – an increase of 63%. While these numbers indicated that cocaine is still widely present in the United States, its use was significantly less prevalent than during the early 1980s.

Usage among youth

The 1999 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey found the proportion of American students reporting use of powdered cocaine rose during the 1990s. In 1991, 2.3% of eighth-graders stated that they had used cocaine in their lifetime. This figure rose to 4.7% in 1999. For the older grades, increases began in 1992 and continued through the beginning of 1999. Between those years, lifetime use of cocaine went from 3.3% to 7.7% for tenth-graders and from 6.1% to 9.8% for high school seniors. Lifetime use of crack cocaine, according to MTF, also increased among eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-graders, from an average of 2% in 1991 to 3.9% in 1999.

Perceived risk and disapproval of cocaine and crack use both decreased during the 1990s at all three grade levels. The 1999 NHSDA found the highest rate of monthly cocaine use was for those aged 18–25 at 1.7%, an increase from 1.2% in 1997. Rates declined between 1996 and 1998 for ages 26–34, while rates slightly increased for the 12–17 and 35+ age groups. Studies also show people are using cocaine at younger ages. NHSDA found a steady decline in the mean age of first use from 23.6 years in 1992 to 20.6 years in 1998.

See also

General:

References

  1. ↑ "erowid.org". Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  2. ↑ "Field Listing – Illicit drugs (by country)". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  3. ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8473543
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