In the mention of the word drug, many people tend to think of the illegal drugs. To set the record straight, it should be known that a drug is any substance that has a psychological or physical effect on the body when administered, other than food and water. Drugs can be used for medical purposes or leisure. This article looks into the trends of drug use in the recent past. The recent drug use statistics have a positive feedback with promising and positive trend.
For the past decade, the world has seen a reduced consumption of both legal and illegal drugs. Some of the most common used drugs include marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. In the United States, the trends of use of marijuana has had a relative reduction in its use ( Goodwin, 2018 ). Even though this drug has been legalized in most of the states, the law enforcement officers have registered a low seizure since a decade ago. The drug courts have also stated that there is a significant reduction in people who identify their drug of abuse in comparison to the numbers who did so a decade ago. This trend is steady to the young and middle aged people. The older generations of people above 65 years of age have had an increase in use of these drugs. This has been propelled by the legalization of medical marijuana.
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Cocaine is the next illegal drug that has also had a low use. The helplines for cocaine related calls have reported a lower number of callers compared to a decade ago. The increased crackdown of users and sellers of this drug has been the reason for the lower numbers. The police evidence rooms and courts’ reports have clearly indicated a reduction to a level of all time lowest in the recent past. The cocaine rehabilitation centers have seen about a fifty percent drop in the numbers of their customer.
Heroin is another illicit drug that has retained this trend of use. However, its use has remained rampant and the numbers are just a fraction lower. The police have reported a lower reception of this drug in the evidence test room ( Johnston, 2017 ). The deaths of this drug abuse in collaboration with other drugs had increased notably matched to the statistics of ten years ago.
Methamphetamine is the second most mentioned drug in the drug abuse helplines. A decade ago, its use had been at an all-time highest probably due to its local production then. The numbers of reported cases in both police reports and the courts have seen these numbers lower with time. Being the second most preferred drug from marijuana, the rehabilitation and treatment of these drug are higher equated to a decade ago. However, the deaths of this drug are still higher than those reported ten years ago.
The use of legal drugs has also seen significant changes too. Pharmaceutical-type opioids are down somewhat. The use of these drug had rapidly increased in the years of 2014 and 2015 but has since lowered ( Kantor, 2015 ). Some other rampant legal drugs are alcohol and tobacco. These are considered as social drinks and is perceived to reduce stress. According to a survey in 2015, an 86% of people involved in the survey indicated to have used alcohol at one time of their life since turning 18 years of age. The use of alcohol has remained relatively constant over the years across the world. This has been the same trend for cigarettes too. However, these trend might see a change in the near future following an invention of e-cigarettes which has gained popularity among youths and other users for some time now.
The drug usage has been on a dropping trend in comparison to a decade ago. However, the future of each drug is not determined. These trend may remain for some drugs while some may see a variation if there are no actions taken to take control of their usage such as e-cigarettes. This is a promising trend with a positive report on matters drug trends.
References
Goodwin, R. D., Pacek, L. R., Copeland, J., Moeller, S. J., Dierker, L., Weinberger, A., ... & Hasin, D. S. (2018). Trends in daily cannabis use among cigarette smokers: United States, 2002–2014. American journal of public health , 108 (1), 137-142.
Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Miech, R. A., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2017). Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2016: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use. Institute for social research .
Kantor, E. D., Rehm, C. D., Haas, J. S., Chan, A. T., & Giovannucci, E. L. (2015). Trends in prescription drug use among adults in the United States from 1999-2012. Jama , 314 (17), 1818-1830.
