Missouri Partners in Crisis Advocating Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

Highlights of the 2005 SAMHSA Report on
Illicit Drug Use in the U.S.

This report presents the first information from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The survey is the primary source of information on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in the civilian, non institutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years old or older, The survey interviews approximately 67,500 persons each year. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons in this report described using terms such as "increased," "decreased," or "more than" are statistically significant at the .05 level.

Illicit Drug Use 

•      In 2005, an estimated 19.7 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) illicit drug users, meaning they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey interview. This estimate represents 8.1 percent of the population aged 12 years old or older. Illicit drugs include marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, or prescription-type psychotherapeutics used nonmedically.

•      The rate of current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older in 2005 (8.1 percent) was similar to the rate in 2004 (7.9 percent), 2003 (8.2 percent), and 2002 (8.3 percent),

•      Marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug (14.6 million past month users).  Among persons aged 12 or older, the rate of past month marijuana use was about the same in 2005 (6.0 percent) as in 2004 (6.1 percent), 2003 (6.2 percent), and 2002 (6.2 percent).

•      In 2005, there were 2.4 million current cocaine users aged 12 or older, which is more than in 2004 when the number was 2.0 million. However, the change in the rate of current use of cocaine between 2005 and 2004 (1.0 and 0.8 percent, respectively) was not statistically significant.

•     Hallucinogens were used in the past month by 1.1 million persons (0.4 percent) aged 12 or older in 2005, including 502,000 (0.2 percent) who had used Ecstasy. These estimates are similar to the corresponding estimates for 2004.

•      There were 6.4 million (2.6 percent) persons aged 12 or older who used prescription-type psychotherapeutic drugs nonmedically in the past month. Of these, 4.7 million used pain relievers, 1.8 million used tranquilizers, 1.1 million used stimulants (including 512,000 using methamphetamine), and 272,000 used sedatives. Each of these estimates is similar to the corresponding estimate for 2004.

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