Substance Use in the 10 Largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas 

The NHSDA Report:  Substance Use in the 10 Largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas

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Highlights:

• According to the U.S. population in 2000, the 10 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) are:  Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.   Rates of past month (i.e., current) illicit drug use, binge alcohol use, and cigarette use for each of these MSAs were compared with the national average.  To obtain sufficient numbers to make reliable estimates, the comparisons are based on the combined data from SAMHSA's 1999, 2000, and 2001 National Household Surveys of Drug Abuse.

• The rate of current illicit drug use was higher than the national average in the Boston, Detroit, and Chicago MSAs.

• The rate of current binge drinking was higher than the national average in the Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia MSAs.  Binge drinking is defined as drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion (i.e., at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other) on at least one day in the past 30 days.

• The rate of current cigarette smoking was higher than the national average only in the Detroit MSA.

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This Short Report,  The NHSDA Report:  Substance Use in the 10 Largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas, is based on SAMHSA's  National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), now called the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).  The NHSDA/NSDUH is conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   The NHSDA/NSDUH also provides estimates for drug use by state.

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This page was last updated on October 16, 2003.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.

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