KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - The latest edition of Recent Drug Abuse Trends in the Seattle-King County Area indicates that drug-related problems in our region have been on the rise over the past year.

Key findings

• Deaths attributed to heroin set a record for our area during 1998 at 144.
• Cocaine use has shown resurgence after several years of decline; over one-third of adult male arrestees and more than half of female arrestees in King County test positive for cocaine.
• Methamphetamine use appears stable in Seattle-King County, but is on an upward trend in other areas of the state.
• Marijuana remains readily available, and recent school surveys indicate a sharp increase in use among school children in Washington State as compared to national averages.
• Hallucogenic drug use continues to be reported primarily involving younger users.
• The HIV infection rate among local IDUs who inject heroin and cocaine is 1-4%; HIV seroprevalence is 47% among methamphetamine users who are men who have sex with men.

What is King County doing?

• Expanding treatment services for heroin addicts (per a grant from the federal government).
• Providing chemical dependency and opiate substitution treatment services for eligible clients via contract with community-based agencies.
• Increasing availability of drug-free housing to help support chemically dependent people who are in recovery maintain a drug-free lifestyle.
• Providing prevention and limited treatment services for drug involved offenders in the local criminal justice system.
• Providing needle exchange services for heroin users to help them avoid HIV and other infections, and to facilitate entry into drug treatment programs.
• Providing acupuncture services (per a grant from Washington State) to heroin addicts as a means of assisting drug-dependent people to manage drug cravings and gain entry to (or as an adjunct to) more comprehensive treatment services.
• Providing education and early intervention for children and youth to keep them from ever trying heroin or other drugs of abuse.
• Conducting research into communicable disease risk behaviors to monitor the problems associated with sharing needles and exchanging sex for drugs.

What more needs to be done?