ILLEGAL DRUG USE IS DECLINING

In an affidavit filed in support of the federal government's attempt to promote urine testing of certain federal employees under the President's executive order, J. Michael Walsh characterized the drug problems in America as pervasive: "Overall, 70.4 million Americans age 12 and over 37% of the population have used marijuana, cocaine or other illicit drugs at least once in their lifetime. Nineteen percent of the population age 12 and over 36.8 million have used illicit drugs at least once in the past year, and 12 % at least once during the month prior to being surveyed." (19)

Walsh himself later notes that of the 70.4 million Americans who have tried an illicit drug at least once in their lives, for most (sixty two million) that drug was marijuana. (20) Many of the proponents of testing use such data. Proponents, however, do not often seem to notice that this same data reveals that almost fifty percent of those who have ever used an illegal drug at least once have not used an illegal drug in the past year and perhaps never will again. (21)

The sources of these data are important and interesting and merit careful attention. There are two important surveys funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse from which most of our knowledge about the use of illegal drugs in the United States is derived. These surveys are the National Household Survey and the annual High School Senior Survey. (22) Both surveys, however, were not constructed to signal serious heavy drug use: "The unique contribution of surveys of the general population lies in their ability to furnish prevalence estimates that include many forms of drug use that never come to the attention of medical and legal authorities.....Survey responses permit classification of drug-using behavior along a continuum of involvement, substituting empirical for arbitrary definitions of medically or socially pathologic conditions, and emphasizing the typical nature of the phenomenon rather than its most dramatic manifestations." (23)

These words from the forward to the National Household Survey published in 1983 seem particularly calm in the light of the frequent repetition of its glaring numbers to induce employers and others to join in the zealot's game. The National Household Survey is a general population survey of household members aged twelve and above and has been conducted every two to three years since 1971. It excludes individuals in institutionalized settings (colleges, prisons, military bases) and, therefore, as conservative. Because each respondent gives general data, it can monitor trends by age and sex and other demographic variables.

The annual High School Senior Survey obtains self-reported information from approximately 130 high schools in the continental United States. Between 16,000 and 18,000 seniors are surveyed. In addition, the investigators construct a sub sample of individuals from each class who are followed, yielding a longitudinal study. These two surveys do not yield a horrible story of an American decline into profligate drug use, but exactly the opposite. Table I depicts data from the Household Survey regarding marijuana use over time. (24) Since 1979, the data indicate a significant decline in use among the two important youth groups. In the eighteen to twenty-five group, the percentage of the population that had ever used marijuana declined from 68.2% to 60.5% Those who had used marijuana in the year preceding the survey declined from 46.9% to 37% and in the last month preceding the survey, from 35.4% to 21.9%.

(Unable to duplicate Tables, charts, and graphs which follow in original text)

These national trends also are reflected in the High School Senior Survey (Table II). (25) The apex of marijuana use in this group also was noted in 1979 and has steadily declined. Marijuana use in the month preceding the survey fell from 33.7% to 23.4%. Daily use has steadily declined from 10.3% to 4.0%

During the growing clamor to test working Americans, interest in marijuana, the most widely-accepted illegal drug, has declined, and declined significantly. This fact is not stressed by those frequently quoting the two survey instruments. The use of cocaine shows a different but still hopeful pattern. Between 1974 and 1985, the lifetime prevalence of cocaine use increased from 5.4 million users to 22.2 million users. (26) However, the trend in the High School Senior Survey showed a distinct leveling off between 1982 and 1985 with a slight decrease. (27) In 1987, cocaine use by high school students and young adults dropped twenty percent. (28) Again, a quarter of those reporting cocaine use had not used the drug in the last year. The decline noted for marijuana has occurred in most drug categories in the High School Survey including a decline in current and daily use of alcohol. (29)

FOOTNOTES

1 Angarola & Brunton, "Substance Abuse in the Workplace: Legal Implications for Corporate Actions," in SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN THE WORKPLACE 35-36 (1984) (hereinafter Angarola & Brunton).
2 id. at 36.
3 "Proficiency Standards for Drug Testing Laboratories: Hearings Before a Subcomm. of the House Comm. on Government Operations, 100th Cong., 1stt Sess. 91-92 (1987) (statement of Mark de Bernardo, Special Counsel for Domestic Policy and Manager of Labor Law. U.S. Chamber of Commerce) [hereinafter Statement of de Bernardo].
4 See Angarola & Brunton, supra note 1, at 35.
5 Cohen, "Drugs in the Workplace," 12 DRUG ABUSE & ALCOHOLISM NEWSL. I. I (Aug. 1983).
6 Photocopy sent from E. Gates Morgan to Dr. John Morgan (Nov. 1986) (discussing Firestone "Study") (copy on file at the Kansas Law Review).
7. RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE, ECONOMIC COSTS TO SOCIETY OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE AND MENTAL ILLNESS: 1980 (1984) [hereinafter RTI STUDY].
8. See Statement of de Bernardo, supra note 3, at 89. "$60 billion is the annual cost to the business community for drug abuse, a 30 percent increase in only three years. One half of that cost is in lost productivity." Id. (emphasis in original). de Bernardo did not cite any source for this statement. See also Church, "Thinking the Unthinkable," TIMEm May 3, 1988, at 14 (chart).
9. See RTI STUDY, supra note 7, at 67-68 (citing NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1982 HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE (1983) [hereinafter 1982 NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY].
10. RTI STUDY, supra note 7, at A-22. Interestingly, the data relied upon showed that adults thirty-five and older effectively had a zero prevalence rate of ever using marijuana on a daily basis. Id. at A-20.
11. Id. at A-20.
12. Id. at A-9.
13. See id. at A-24.
14. Id.
15. See supra note 10.
16. See RTI STUDY, supra note 7, at 68.
17. Id.
18. Id.
19. Declaration of J. Michael Walsh, Ph.D., Director of Workplace Initiatives, National Institute on Drug Abuse, at 2, submitted with Department of Justice Memorandum of Support for Summary Judgment, American Fed'n of Gov't Employees, Civ.No. 87-1797, 87-2350 (D.D.C. March 1, 1988) [hereinafter Declaration of J. Michael Walsh, Ph.D.].
21. id.
22. NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY, supra note 9; NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE US DEPT OF HEALTHE AND HUMAN SERVICES, NATIONAL TRENDS IN DRUG USE AND RELATED FACTORS AMONG AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS, 1975-1986 [hereinafter HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR SURVEY].
23. 1982 NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY, supra note 9, at 1.
24. Kozel & Adams, "Epidemiology of Drug Abuse: An Overview," 234 SCIENCE 970, (1986) [hereinafter Kozel & Adams] (citing NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, HIGHLIGHT OF THE 1985 HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE (Nov. 1986).
25. HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR SURVEY, supra note 22, at 47-50.
26. Kozel & Adams, supra note 24, at 973.
27. HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR SURVEY, supra note 22, at 47-50
28. Statement by Dr. Lloyd D. Johnstone, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services News Conference (Jan. 13, 1988) (copy on file at the KANSAS LAW REVIEW). Dr. Johnston is one of the principal authors of the High School Senior Survey.
29. Id.

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