Cocaine and crack addiction is growing in America, but the number of casual drug users has been cut sharply, a new drug abuse survey shows.
The 1988 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse released Monday found a 37 percent drop from a 1985 survey in the number of people who said they had used marijuana, cocaine or other illicit drugs in the previous month.The survey also showed the number of people who said they had used an illegal drug during the previous year fell by 25 percent over the three years.
"We are making some real progress in this war," said William Bennett, director of federal drug control policy. "People who have been saying all is lost, we can't win, let's legalize (drugs) have never been more wrong.
"Drugs are cheap and they are available almost everywhere, yet millions of Americans who once used them regularly appear now to have given them up altogether. This is primarily a triumph of changed attitudes," he said.
However, the survey also found that the number of heavy cocaine users, including those using the highly addictive form of the drug known as crack, rose sharply between 1985 and 1988 - by 33 percent for those using it once a week or more and by 19 percent for daily and almost-daily users.
Though casual cocaine use dropped sharply overall - by 50 percent for previous-month use - the survey found that among blacks and Hispanics the numbers did not change significantly.
According to the survey, 72 million Americans - 37 percent of the population - had tried at least one illicit drug in their lifetimes.
"Illicit drug use by Americans remains much too high," said Louis Sullivan, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. But, he added, "attitudes are changing."
Casual users are "the ones who serve as a base for cocaine and crack addicts," he said. "So if we can reduce the number of casual users, in time we will also influence the number of addicts."
Sullivan and Bennett both said more resources will be needed to continue current drug awareness efforts as well as bolster drug treatment programs, though they declined to say how much money should be directed to these areas.