Cocaine is a drug that has become very dangerous in the past few years when it comes to usage trends.
Recent trends indicate that the amount of cocaine in the markets today probably meets the user demand in most of the markets, and there really is no shortfall of cocaine. However, there is data to suggest that even though the cocaine is meeting the demands, the purity of the cocaine that is being sold is not staying steady, and is in fact diminishing. This could lead to a much bigger problem, as it is customary for people to continue cocaine use – and if the cocaine that they are using does not make them feel the same way that it used to because of a difference in the purity, people might be more apt to begin to use more and more cocaine in order to get the same high.
It will also become a problem because as the cocaine becomes less pure, there are other things added into the cocaine in order to increase perceived yield. This becomes very dangerous because people do not know what they are going to be putting in their bodies. It is not always the cocaine that they think it is, and this becomes extremely dangerous.
When it comes to the cocaine use statistics, it has usually been found that one out of four Americans between the age of 26 and 34 has used cocaine at one point in their lives. In 1985, it was found that 5,000 adults tried cocaine every day. In the past 20 years, this number has risen dramatically. Today, it is estimated that 22 to 25 million people have tried the drug at least once. There are perhaps over two million people who are addicted to cocaine in the United States today.
It is usually assumed that cocaine leaves the system after it has been used. However, newer estimates find that it can be detected in someone’s body up to 22 days after it has been used. When it comes to the annual number of new users, this too has increased in the last 20 years. For instance, in 1975, there were 30,000 new users. However, in 2000, there were 361,000 new users. This number is only getting larger.
In the past five years, the rate of cocaine use by college students has risen from 2 percent of all students in the year 1994, to almost 5 percent of students in the year 2000. When it comes to high school students, in 2001, it was noted that 8.2 percent of seniors had used cocaine.
From the years of 1997 to 2000, cocaine was listed as the most common drug reported in emergency room visits. This number is much higher than in the past, and if trends keep going the same way they are, it is only going to get higher.
Also, when it comes to use between the sexes, cocaine use among men is almost two times that of among women. The office of National Drug Control Policy estimates the number of chronic cocaine users at 3.6 million.
Adults that are 18 to 25 years old currently have the highest number of cocaine users than any other age group. Also, cocaine has been proven to be a drug whose use has resulted from abuse of other substances. 90 percent of cocaine users report that they had smoked cigarettes, used alcohol or marijuana or other drugs before trying cocaine.