Completed 3rd quarter 1998 data -- as described in the new report Recent Drug Abuse Trends in the Seattle-King County Area -- indicate the following trends:

• Many drug-use trends indicators seem to show a leveling or slight increase in drug-related problems in our area over the past year; the exception to this is cocaine-use.
• Methamphetamine-use appears stable in Seattle-King County, but is on an upward trend in other areas of the state.
• Marijuana remains readily available, and recent school surveys indicate a sharp increase in use among school children in this state as compared to several years ago.
• Hallucinogenic drugs continue to appear in area reports involving primarily younger users.
• Regarding HIV infection among IDUs, local studies in drug treatment agencies indicate a significantly higher rate of infection among African- and Native-American patients; HIV prevalence in out-of-treatment IDUs may be slightly higher than among injectors who enter drug treatment.
• The highest rate of HIV infection locally continues to be among gay and bisexual men who inject methamphetamine.

What is King County doing to address the local heroin problem?

• King County provides needle exchange services for heroin users to help them avoid HIV and other infections AND to facilitate entry into drug treatment programs.
• King County provides prevention and treatment for people in the local criminal justice system.
• King County provides education and intervention for children and youth to keep them from ever trying heroin.
• King County recently received a grant to expand treatment services for heroin addicts.
• King County has obtained state funds to continue to provide acupuncture services as a means of assisting drug-dependent people manage drug cravings and gain entry to more comprehensive treatment services.
• King County is increasing availability of alcohol and drug-free housing to support people who are in recovery maintain an alcohol and drug-free lifestyle.
• King County continues to conduct research into communicable disease risk behaviors to monitor the problems associated with sharing needles and exchanging sex for drugs.

What more needs to be done?

• Prevention education strategies need to continue as a means of maintaining and increasing knowledge among users about the risks for transmission of disease when injecting of drugs and sharing needles.
• Treatment services need to be expanded so that we have a "treatment on demand" model for serving those people with drug addiction.
• Education efforts need to reach young people who have misconceptions about drug-use (including the ideas that 1) smoking heroin is relatively safe, and 2) GHB -- aka "date rape" drug -- is without dangerous side effects).
• Proven approaches to reach those whose criminal activities were influenced by drug-/alcohol-use (e.g., drug court treatment services) need to be made more widely available.