NCJRS - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) conducts an annual survey of households nationwide using in-person interviews of individuals ages 12 and older. The survey covers residents in households, non-institutional group quarters (e.g., shelters, rooming/boarding houses, college dormitories, migratory workers' camps, halfway houses), and civilians living on military bases. The final respondent sample of 67,802 persons in 2006 was representative of the U.S. general population aged 12 or older. Findings from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2007) include:
- An estimated 528,000 individuals aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of ecstasy, representing 0.2% of the population.
- Approximately 12.3 million people aged 12 or older had used ecstasy at least once in their lives, representing 5.0% of the population.
- In 2006, there were an estimated 731,000 current users of methamphetamine, aged 12 or older, representing 0.3% of the population. These estimates do not differ significantly from estimates for 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
- Past year methamphetamine use was higher in the West (1.6%) than in the Northeast (0.3%), Midwest (0.5%) or South (0.7%) in 2006. The rates of past year use in 2006 were similar to those in 2002 in each respective region.

Sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Monitoring the Future program at the University of Michigan conducts annual anonymous written surveys of nationally representative samples of students in public and private secondary schools throughout the coterminous United States. Approximately 48,460 students in 410 secondary schools participated in the 2006 Monitoring the Future survey. Results from 2006 Monitoring the Future survey (2006) include:
- Among high school seniors surveyed in 2006, 4.1% used MDMA, 2.5% used meth, 1.1% used GHB, 1.4% used ketamine, and 1.1% used Rohypnol within the year prior to being surveyed.
- Approximately 2.5% of 8th graders, 4.5% of 10th graders, and 6.5% of 12th graders reported lifetime use of MDMA. Also, 2.7% of 8th graders, 3.2% of 10th graders, and 4.4% of 12th graders reported lifetime use of methamphetamine.
- Approximately 40% (40.3%) of 12th graders, 27.4% of 10th graders, and 14.5% of 8th graders reported that MDMA was "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain.

In 2003, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) implemented a "new" Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which provides data from a review of emergency department (ED) medical records for every patient treated in participating EDs nationwide. The estimates in Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2004: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits (2006) are based on data submitted by 417 hospitals and apply to the entire U.S. Findings from the ED record reviews during 2004 include:
- 1,997,993 total drug-related ED visits
- 73,400 of the drug-related ED visits involved methamphetamine
- 8,621 involved MDMA
- 2,340 involved GHB
- 227 involved ketamine

El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) National Clandestine Laboratory Seizure System (NCLSS) data show that the overall number of reported methamphetamine laboratory seizures nationwide decreased 43% from 10,212 in 2003 to 5,846 in 2005. Preliminary data indicate that 2,159 lab seizures were reported for January to September 2006 (National Methamphetamine Threat Assessment 2007, National Drug Intelligence Center, 2006).

According to EPIC data presented in the National Drug Intelligence Center's National Drug Threat Assessment 2007, reported seizures of MDMA labs in the U.S. decreased from 16 in 2004 to 14 in 2005. Additionally, GHB lab seizures decreased from 12 in 2004 to 2 in 2005.

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