THE VALUE OF THE STATISTICS HAS BEEN QUESTIONED SINCE COURT BACKLOGS AND OTHER LONG DELAYS BETWEEN ARREST AND CONVICTION MAY RENDER SUCH STATISTICS INVALID. THE PRESENT STUDY SAMPLED HEROIN CONVICTIONS UNDER THE NARCOTIC CONTROL ACT THAT WERE REPORTED TO THE BUREAU FROM 1973 THROUGH 1975. AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO ESTIMATE THE AVERAGE TIME LAG FROM ARREST TO CONVICTION FOR THESE REPORTED CASES USING A RANDOM SAMPLE OF 10 PERCENT OF ALL THE RECORDED HEROIN CONVICTIONS. MEAN INTERVALS WERE TABULATED FOR EACH PROVINCE, YEAR, AND SECTION OF THE LAW. RESULTS SHOWED THAT FOR SIMPLE HEROIN POSSESSION, THE INTERVAL AVERAGED 4.8 MONTHS, WITH LITTLE VARIATION FROM PROVINCE TO PROVINCE AND NO SIGNIFICANT VARIATION OVER TIME. TRAFFICKING AND POSSESSION FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAFFICKING RESULTED IN LONGER INTERVALS IN ALL PROVINCES, APPROXIMATELY 10.5 MONTHS, WITH THE INTERVAL INCREASING OVER TIME. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT COURT BACKLOGS HAVE NOT RENDERED THE STATISTICS ON CONVICTIONS FOR SIMPLE POSSESSION INVALID AS INDICATORS OF HEROIN USE, BUT THAT LONG DELAYS BETWEEN ARRESTS AND CONVICTIONS FOR TRAFFICKING AND POSSESSION FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAFFICKING HAVE DISTORED THE FIGURES SOMEWHAT. TRENDS SEEN IN THE LATTER DATA SHOULD BE INTERPRETED WITH CAUTION. FOOTNOTES, TABULAR DATA, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY ARE PROVIDED. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED--LWM)