Cocaine Statistics

• 1 out of 4 Americans between the age of 26 and 34 has used cocaine in their lifetime.

• According to a 1985 report by the Minnesota Institute for Public Health and drug prevention resource center, 5,000 adults in the United States try cocaine for the first time each day.

• Today it is estimated that 22 to 25 million people have tried cocaine at least once. Conservative estimates indicate that there are over two million cocaine addicts in the United States today.

• Contrary to earlier belief, high dose use of cocaine can be detected as long as 10 to 22 days after last use.

• Nearly half of all drug related emergency room visits are due to cocaine abuse.

• The annual number of new cocaine users has generally increased over time. In 1975 there were 30,000 new users. The number increased from 300,000 in 1986 to 361,000 in 2000.

• Rates of cocaine use by college students over the previous 5 years have varied between 2.0% of all students in 1994 to 4.8% in 2000.

• Of high school seniors in 2001, 8.2% reported having used cocaine.

• From 1997 to 2000 cocaine was the most common drug reported in emergency room episodes.

• Cocaine use among men is almost twice that of women. Based upon additional data sources, the office of National Drug Control Policy estimates the number of chronic cocaine users at 3.6 million.

• Adults 18 to 25 years of age currently have the highest percentage of cocaine use than any other age group.

• 90% of cocaine users smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, or used marijuana before trying cocaine.

• In 1988, about 300,000 infants were born addicted to cocaine.

• Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug (following marijuana) in the United States. More than 34 million Americans (14.7%) age 12 or older have used cocaine at least once in their lifetime.
• Up to 75% of people who try cocaine will become addicted to it. Only one out of four people who try to quit will be able to do so without help.

• Cocaine is a $35 billion illicit industry now exceeding Columbia’s top export, coffee.

• Each day 5,000 more people will experiment with cocaine.

• Cocaine hydrochloride is very stable. It binds closely to the ink in paper currency. FBI chemists have discovered that traces of cocaine can be found on almost every dollar bill in circulation.

• One in ten workers knows someone who uses cocaine on the job.

• Texas is a distribution and trans-shipment area for cocaine transported (via passenger vehicles & tractor-trailers) to destinations throughout the nation. Illicit transporters favor the exploitation of the commercial trucking industry to move bulk (multi-hundred kilogram) quantities of cocaine. Smaller loads are routinely seized from private vehicles or human couriers utilizing public transportation.