Designer Drugs - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

"New designer drugs are being developed all the time," noted Clayton, as are new ways to market these drugs. According to "Pulse Check," a publication of the Executive Office of the President, the Internet is playing an increasingly large part in the sale of designer drugs. The "Pulse Check," report, which was published in 2004, states that "law enforcement is way behind dealers and users technologically, especially at the local and state levels."

Designer drug use seemed to explode between the 1990s and 2002. Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) statistics tell the story. According to DAWN, annual hospital emergency room visits associated with club and designer drug use jumped from a few hundred or less in 1995 to several thousand or more in 2002. Most statistics available on designer drug use are delayed by a year or two. As of 2005, however, reports showed that designer drug usage was going down. The 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey and the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) both reported an overall decrease in users of drugs such as ecstasy and GHB.