Marijuana Tops Cocaine As Most Commonly Used Drug Among Arrestees In 10 U.S. Cities

Marijuana is the most commonly used drug among men arrested in 10 cities in the United States, while cocaine use among arrestees is on the decline, a federal report revealed Wednesday.

The 2011 Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) II program, an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) initiative, found that 45 percent or more of arrestees tested positive for marijuana in nine of the 10 cities in which it operates. Those cities are Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Denver; Indianapolis; Minneapolis; New York; Portland, Ore.; Sacramento, Calif., and Washington, D.C.

ADAM was introduced in 2000 but came to an end in 2003 because of its cost. Officials revived the program in 2007 and now it collects data on arrestees within 48 hours of their arrest. They test for the presence of 10 drugs: marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamine/methamphetamine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, propoxyphene, phencyclidine, methadone and oxycodone.

The overall picture is that 60 percent of arrestees in all the cities tested positive for at least one drug in their system at the time of arrest in 2011. Seventy percent or more tested positive in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Portland and Sacramento.

Researchers with the ADAM II program conducted 5,051 interviews and 4,412 urine tests in all arrestees last year in order to compile the report.

Sacramento, Chicago and Charlotte all had more than 50 percent of their arrestees testing positive for marijuana. Sacramento topped the list at 56 percent. These figures don't differ much from last year's, according to the report.

In 2011, arrestees reported that they acquired marijuana in the prior month using both cash and noncash means, the report read.

Cocaine was the second most commonly detected substance. It was detected in either the powder or crack form in eight of the 10 cities last year, with Portland and Sacramento being the exceptions. In those two places, methamphetamine was the more common choice.

Some places have seen a sharp decline in arrestees using cocaine.

The report found a steep decline in cocaine use in New York and Chicago, as the cocaine positives there fell from 50 percent or more in 2000 to about half that last year.

Crack was the most common form of cocaine use reported in seven of the 10 cities last year.

As fewer arrestees were using crack cocaine, their involvement in the crack market also declined, the report stated. The most active markets were Chicago, Atlanta and Denver, where 15 percent, 13 percent, and 14 percent of arrestees, respectively, reported having acquired crack in the prior 30 days.

Read the full ADAM II report below: Adam II 2011 Annual Rpt Web Version Corrected