1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

Table 50. Percentages Reporting About Risk and Availability of Drugs in the U.S. Population Aged 12 to 17:  1985-1998  

Risk/Availability	1985	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
PERCEPTIONS OF GREAT RISK
Cigarettes
Smoke one or more packs per day	45.2b	48.1b	48.3b	48.7b	51.3	51.7	--	54.0	53.6	54.1
Marijuana
Smoke once a month1	28.9	40.4b	38.0b	38.7b	37.4a	32.9	--	32.6	30.9	30.8
Smoke once or twice a week1	59.7	65.7b	64.5b	64.3b	63.3b	58.5b	--	57.1a	54.0	54.4
Cocaine
Use once a month1	58.4	72.4b	67.3b	67.8b	67.6b	63.3b	--	54.4	54.4	54.3
Use once or twice a week1	83.0	86.3	85.4	84.8	84.3	84.0a	--	81.4	82.4	81.6
Alcohol
Four or five drinks nearly every day	65.8	67.9	59.8b	61.2b	59.8b	65.4	--	66.7	65.3	66.4
Five or more drinks once or twice a week	56.1b	59.1b	54.9b	58.4b	54.4b	54.3b	--	45.2	46.5	47.0
AVAILABILITY
Fairly or very easy to obtain
Marijuana	--	--	53.6a	51.0b	52.8a	57.6	--	57.7	57.9	56.3
Cocaine	--	--	35.7b	33.4a	32.9a	35.3b	--	32.0	30.4	29.9
Crack	--	--	--	--	--	33.4b	--	29.2	28.9	28.7
Heroin	--	--	23.1	22.4	21.3	25.3b	--	22.8	21.4	21.2
Approached by someone selling drugs past month	--	--	--	13.4	14.4	13.0	--	14.9	14.6	13.7

*Low precision; no estimate reported.

-- Not available.

NOTE: The population distributions for the 1993 through 1998 NHSDAs are post-stratified to population projections of totals based on the 1990 decennial census. NHSDAs from 1985 through 1992 used projections based on the 1980 census. The change from one census base to another has little effect on estimated percentages reporting drug use, but may have a significant effect on estimates of number of drug users in some subpopulation groups.

¹ Estimates for 1985 through 1993 may differ from estimates for these survey years that were published in other NHSDA reports. The estimates shown here for 1985 through 1993 have been adjusted to improve their comparability with estimates based on the new version of the NHSDA instrument that was fielded in 1994 and subsequent NHSDAs. Because of the methodology used to adjust the 1985 through 1993 estimates, some logical inconsistency may exist between estimates for a given drug within the same survey year. These inconsistencies tend to be small, rare, and not statistically significant.

^aDifference between estimate and 1998 estimate is statistically significant at the .05 level.

^bDifference between estimate and 1998 estimate is statistically significant at the .01 level.

Source: SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

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This page was last updated on June 01, 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.