Word: drugging
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...inherent drawback of self-reporting is the tendency for respondents to simply lie about their illicit drug use, for obvious reasons. To address this problem, SAMHSA introduced hand-held computer modules in 1999, eliminating the need for a government mediator to administer the survey face-to-face. To encourage better response rates, the agency began offering a $30 cash incentive. More recently, a new challenge has arisen: as the number of Spanish-speaking Americans continues to grow, officials face problems in translation. Certain Spanish words mean different things to Puerto Ricans than they do to Cubans or Mexicans, according...
Officials supplement and cross-check the survey's results with other, quantifiable, verifiable data like the number of drug-related arrests and drug seizures in a particular area. Another research tool, known as the Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN, tracks the number of emergency-room visits and drug overdoses throughout the country. Using figures like these, officials determine where and how funding will be allocated throughout the country, Compton says. But these numbers fail to account for those drug dealers and users who have managed to avoid doctors and police...
Another window into the world of drug abuse is through the workplace. Drug tests are often mandated at trucking companies and pharmacies, where on-the-job drug abuse is particularly dangerous to the public. In August, the Office of National Drug Policy released a report showing a 15.9% decline in the number of positive drug tests for cocaine among the U.S. workforce during the first six months of 2007 compared with 2006. But how accurate are these numbers? Workplace drug tests can't catch all drug abuse. The tests have a fleeting detection period - drugs must be consumed within...
...researchers at Oregon State University are taking a new approach to assessing drug use that could potentially transform the government's understanding of America's drug problem. In small samples taken from untreated community sewage plants in six major cities, lead researcher Jennifer Field has been identifying and analyzing chemicals the body produces after breaking down substances like marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and heroin. This method, first used by Italian scientists to gauge regional cocaine use, allows researchers to analyze data within hours, tracking drug use, not over a year's time using aggregated national data, but over a few days...
...even if such testing proves reliable, drug officials must still grapple with society's changing perception of what constitutes a drug and what constitutes abuse. The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services work together to rank drugs like ecstasy, aspirin and cocaine on a scale of five schedules, or classifications. Cocaine, for instance, is categorized as a "Schedule II" drug because of its medical use as a local anesthetic. (Other Schedule II drugs include morphine, which also poses a high risk for abuse but is recognized as medically useful. Schedule I drugs, like heroin...