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Significant reductions in substance abuse were generally found during and immediately following treatment. But most important, NTIES showed that clients served by Federally-funded substance abuse treatment programs were able to reduce their drug use by about 50 percent for as long as one year after leaving treatment.

Table 1 shows that:

  • Clients' use of their primary drug(s), the one(s) that led them into treatment, declined from 73 percent to 38 percent one year after treatment;

  • Cocaine use decreased from 40 percent before treatment to 18 percent one year after treatment;

  • Heroin use, which most experts believe is the most treatment resistant of drugs, was reduced by almost half, from 24 percent the year before to 13 percent a year after treatment;

  • Crack, a drug used by approximately half the NTIES respondents, showed a significant decrease between the 12 months before and the 12 months after treatment - down from 50 percent to 25 percent;
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    NTIES Table of Contents | Introduction | Conclusions | Appendix | NTIES Findings on: Drug and Alcohol Use | Changes in Criminal Behavior | Employment, Income, and Homelessness | Changes in Physical and Mental Health | Changes in Sexual Behavior | Variation in Treatment Outcomes | Costs of Treatment