The Big Picture on Drug Use

In order to get a better picture about what is going on with drug use in America, I took the data from the latest Monitoring the Future and National Survey on Drug Use and Health Surveys and made a wide variety and large number of graphics comparing and contrasting the data. Doing so has led to some interesting and eye-opening revelations that are pertinent to addressing both claims about drug use in general, as well as claims concerning the possible ramifications of widespread legal availability of drugs other than alcohol. I have normalized the charts to make it easier to do direct comparisons within and across the various parameters of use. All charts representing prevalence of use for the various drugs are thus on a scale of 0 to 100 percent, while those depicting ratios comparing use of the drugs versus alcohol and marijuana are on a scale of 0 to 1. When assessing the ratio data, the comparison metric is how many users of drug "X" per one user of alcohol (or marijuana or both together depending on what is depicted). For an explanation of what the charts depict, click here. Have a look at this material yourself, and use it to evaluate claims about what will happen if the drugs are legalized. Will legalizing crack and heroin lead to widespread use of those drugs? I don't think it will, and the data backs up that assessment. Drug users show clear preferences in their patterns of use, and despite the lack of useful and truthful information about these drugs, they are simply not using the drugs that are truly more "dangerous."

Amphetamine	Cocaine	Crack
Ecstasy (MDMA)	Hallucinogens	Heroin
Inhalants	LSD	Marijuana
Other Narcotics	Sedatives	Tranquilizers

Comparisons Among Young Adults (1986 - 2004)
Chart Type	12th Grade	College	Age 19 to 28	Across Demographics
Prevalence of Use	X	X	X	Lifetime Past Year Past Month
Use Ratios Vs Alcohol	X	X	X	Lifetime Past Year Past Month
Use Ratios Vs Marijuana	X	X	X	Lifetime Past Year Past Month
Use Ratios Vs Both	Lifetime Past Year Past Month	Lifetime Past Year Past Month	Lifetime Past Year Past Month	Lifetime Past Year Past Month

Comparisons Among School Age Youth (1991 - 2005)
Chart Type	8th Grade	10th Grade	12th Grade	Across Demographics
Prevalence of Use	X	X	X	Lifetime Past Year Past Month
Use Ratios Vs Alcohol	X	X	X	Lifetime Past Year Past Month
Use Ratios Vs Marijuana	X	X	X	Lifetime Past Year Past Month
Use Ratios Vs Both	Lifetime Past Year Past Month	Lifetime Past Year Past Month	Lifetime Past Year Past Month	Lifetime Past Year Past Month

Initiation of Use (1965 - 2003)

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