NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE: alcohol & other drugs

1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

Alcohol Use and Use of Other Drugs (Tables 7.10 to 7.12)

Table 7.10 presents the cross-classification of alcohol use and other drug use reported by the respondents. As past NHSDA reports and other literature have indicated, current use of alcohol was strongly associated with use of other legal and illegal drugs for each age group (Kandel & Yamaguchi, 1993; Yamaguchi & Kandel, 1984a, 1984b).18 Overall, nearly 40% of current alcohol users also used cigarettes in the past month, compared with 21% of current alcohol abstainers. Current alcohol users were about five times more likely than nonusers to report past month use of any illicit drug (10% vs. 2%).

These associations were especially pronounced among younger drinkers. For example, past month alcohol users aged 12 to 17 and those aged 18 to 25 were about 14 and 8 times, respectively, as likely as nonusers within their age groups to report past month illicit drug use. The differences were not as great among the 26 to 34 age group, but they still represent a well-established association between alcohol use and other drug use.

Tables 7.11 and 7.12 show similar and even stronger patterns of the relationship between "binge" and heavy alcohol use and other drug use. For the total population, "binge" alcohol users were almost six times as likely as those who had not "binged" to have used an illicit drug in the past month (22% and 4%, respectively). Heavy drinkers were six times as likely as those not reporting heavy use to report illicit drug use in the past month (30% and 5%, respectively). About three out of four adolescents who reported past month heavy alcohol use also used an illicit drug in the past month.

18 Also see, for example, NIDA (1991, Table 7.9) for the 1990 NHSDA; OAS (1993, Table 7.9) for the 1991 NHSDA; OAS (1995a, Table 7.9) for the 1992 NHSDA; OAS (1995b, Table 7.9) for the 1993 NHSDA; OAS (1996a, Table 7.10) for the 1994 NHSDA; OAS (1997, Table 7.10) for the 1995 NHSDA; and OAS (1998a, Tables 7.10 and 7.12) for the 1996 NHSDA.

This page was last updated on June 16, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.

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