More than two-thirds of adult men arrested in D.C. test positive for illegal drugs, according to new data from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
In 2011, 67.7 percent of arrestees had at least one drug in their system at the time they were booked, a report by the agency’s Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program found.
The District ranked seventh out of the 10 cities studied. In all of the cities, more than 60 percent of arrestees tested positive, highlighting what ONDCP officials called a pervasive nexus between drug use and crime.
| Drug use among D.C. arrestees, 2011 | ||
| Drug | Percent who tested positive | |
| Any | 67.7 | |
| Marijuana | 44.5 | |
| Cocaine | 17.5 | |
| Opiates | 11.3 | |
| PCP 4.2 | ||
| Methamphetamine | 0.4 | |
| Source: ONDCP | ||
| Overall positive test results by city | ||
| 1. Sacramento, 81 percent | ||
| 2. Chicago, 80.5 percent | ||
| 3. Portland, 73.2 percent | ||
| 4. New York, 72.7 percent | ||
| 5. Minneapolis, 69.6 percent | ||
| 6. Denver, 68.7 percent | ||
| 7. D.C., 67.7 percent | ||
| 8. Charlotte, 67.4 percent | ||
| 9. Indianapolis, 66.5 percent | ||
| 10. Atlanta, 64.1 percent | ||
| Source: ONDCP | ||
“If we break that cycle, we could make a big difference in the way we protect our communities,” Director Gil Kerlikowske said.
D.C. saw a sharp increase from the 52 percent who tested positive in 2010. The number “bounces around,” said Terry Zobeck, ONDCP’s associate director for research and data analysis. In 2009, 74 percent of D.C.’s arrestees had positive drug tests.
The most common drug used in all cities was marijuana, for which 44.5 percent of D.C. arrestees tested positive.
In the District, 17.5 percent tested positive for cocaine. As recently as 2007, 31 percent of people tested had used that drug.
ONDCP officials said the country overall has seen drops in cocaine use. Messages about the dangers of crack cocaine have spread, particularly in black communities, Kerlikowske said.
“It’s taken a huge toll in that community,” he said.
Though only 4.2 percent of District arrestees tested positive for PCP, that number far surpassed the other cities reviewed. No more than 1.5 percent tested positive in any other jurisdiction.
That’s due to geographic differences in drug use, said Cliff Keenan, deputy director for the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia. While PCP remains prevalent here, he said, methamphetamine use is widespread in the West, Midwest and rural areas, but is “not popular in D.C.”
In D.C., arrestees between the ages of 18 and 21 were most likely to test positive for drugs. Whites had higher positive rates than blacks and Hispanics for opiates and methamphetamine; blacks had the highest rate for marijuana; and Hispanics the highest for cocaine.
When people get involved in the criminal justice system, “it provides a unique window of opportunity for intervention,” said Redonna Chandler, chief of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s services research branch.
But it’s still a challenge to get those offenders long-term help.
“A person with addiction needs years of counseling and treatment and aftercare,” Keenan said.
