KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - The latest edition of Recent Drug Abuse Trends in the Seattle-King County Area indicates that drug-related problems in our region have been on the rise over the past year.
Key findings
Deaths attributed to heroin set a record for our area during 1998 at 144.
Cocaine use has shown resurgence after several years of decline; over one-third of adult male arrestees and more than half of female arrestees in King County test positive for cocaine.
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 Washington State as compared to national averages.
Hallucogenic drug use continues to be reported primarily involving younger users.
The HIV infection rate among local IDUs who inject heroin and cocaine is 1-4%; HIV seroprevalence is 47% among methamphetamine users who are men who have sex with men.
What is King County doing?
Expanding treatment services for heroin addicts (per a grant from the federal government).
Providing chemical dependency and opiate substitution treatment services for eligible clients via contract with community-based agencies.
Increasing availability of drug-free housing to help support chemically dependent people who are in recovery maintain a drug-free lifestyle.
Providing prevention and limited treatment services for drug involved offenders in the local criminal justice system.
Providing needle exchange services for heroin users to help them avoid HIV and other infections, and to facilitate entry into drug treatment programs.
Providing acupuncture services (per a grant from Washington State) to heroin addicts as a means of assisting drug-dependent people to manage drug cravings and gain entry to (or as an adjunct to) more comprehensive treatment services.
Providing education and early intervention for children and youth to keep them from ever trying heroin or other drugs of abuse.
Conducting 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 drugs and sharing needles.
Treatment services need to be expanded to a "treatment on demand" model for servicing chemically dependent individuals within a continuum of care and aftercare.
Education efforts need to reach young people who have misconceptions about drug-use (e.g., smoking heroin is relatively safe).
Proven approaches to reach non-violent offenders who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs need to be implemented (e.g., community corrections/supervision) or expanded (e.g., drug court treatment services) with swift and certain accountability for non-compliant offenders.
