1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

Table 59. Percentages Reporting About Risk and Availability of Drugs for California, by Age Group: 1995 -1998   

	AGE GROUP (Years)
	12-17				18-25				26 or Older				Total
Drug	1995	1996	1997	1998	1995	1996	1997	1998	1995	1996	1997	1998	1995	1996	1997	1998
Perceptions of Great Risk
Cigarettes
Smoke one or more packs per day	--	63.6	62.4	60.8	--	72.3	69.9	69.4	--	77.1	76.3	75.7	--	74.9	74.0	73.3
Marijuana
Smoke once a month	--	30.7	29.1	29.2	--	29.3	25.6	24.9	--	42.3	41.2	38.4	--	39.0	37.8	35.7
Smoke once or twice a week	--	54.4	49.5	49.6	--	43.9	43.3	40.6	--	54.8	56.1	53.6	--	53.1	53.7	51.5
Cocaine
Use once a month	--	54.9	54.1	53.6	--	63.6	66.2	63.4	--	74.6	79.1	77.5	--	70.8	74.7	73.0
Use once or twice a week	--	79.8	81.7	81.8	--	83.4a	89.0	88.0	--	88.0	92.8	91.5	--	86.4a	91.1	90.0
Alcohol
Four or five drinks nearly every day	--	69.8	68.8	67.2	--	74.4	72.0	69.7	--	81.9	80.8	80.4	--	79.4	78.4	77.6
Five or more drinks once or twice a week	--	47.1	46.5	49.2	--	47.5	48.7	45.7	--	60.2	59.6	58.2	--	56.8	56.8	55.5
Availability
Fairly or very easy to obtain
Marijuana	--	56.4	53.2	53.6	--	73.3	72.5	71.9	--	53.1	53.0	53.9	--	56.6	55.6	56.3
Cocaine	--	32.8a	28.1	25.8	--	45.2	40.8	41.3	--	41.2a	35.0	35.9	--	40.9a	35.0	35.5
Crack	--	28.5	25.9	25.6	--	38.5	36.1	36.2	--	37.7	33.3	34.1	--	36.9	32.9	33.4
Heroin	--	19.0	19.1	18.7	--	30.9	27.6	26.9	--	32.5a	28.2	26.7	--	30.8b	27.1	25.8
Approached by someone selling drugs in past month	--	15.2	18.2	14.6	--	19.4	18.5	19.3	--	4.4	5.7a	3.7	--	7.9	8.8a	6.9

Note: The 1995-96 NHSDA samples were not designed to produce fully representative California estimates. The size and coverage (approximately 95% of the California population) of the 1995-96 samples, however, were sufficient to provide reasonably accurate prevalence estimates for California. Although the sample weights associated with 1995-96 NHSDA respondents from California were not post-stratified to California population projections, analyses of the NHSDA data revealed this lack of post-stratification had little effect on estimated percentages of reported drug use. It may, however, have a significant effect on estimates of totals within certain subgroups.

*Low precision; no estimate reported.

-- Estimate not available.

^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: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, 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.