Estimating the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse and dependence among New Orleans arrestees.

摘要

The Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program collects self-report drug use data and urine specimens from adult arrestees across the United States. Despite high levels of drug use among arrestees, few studies have examined need for alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment within this population. To address this limitation, a secondary analysis was undertaken with a sample of 940 New Orleans arrestees surveyed in 2001. Fifty-nine percent of the sample was diagnosed as needing AOD treatment. Because "need for treatment" was operationalized as a diagnosis of abuse or dependence, the current results should be viewed as liberal estimates of treatment need. Drug treatment implications for criminal populations are discussed.