1.2 The Nature of the Problem

During 1997, the NHSDA interviewed 24,505 people, whose responses were subsequently weighted to generate national estimates of substance abuse by the civilian non-institutional U.S. population age 12 and older. The distribution of substance use varies by employment status in 1997. The rate of illicit drug use was found to be the highest among the unemployed. Table 1.1 shows that 16.5 percent of the unemployed were current illicit drug users in 1997, compared to 9.3 percent among part-time workers and 7.7 percent among full-time workers. Similarly, 11.7 percent of unemployed were current heavy alcohol users, compared with 6.3 percent among part-time workers and 7.6 percent among full-time workers. However, given that full-time workers account for almost 80 percent of the labor force, the estimated number of full-time workers who were current illicit drug users is much larger than that of the unemployed (6.3 million vs. 1.2 million). The distribution of current illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use by employment status was similar in 1994.

This report focuses primarily on 7,957 NHSDA respondents, age 18-49, who reported that they were working full-time (35 hours or more a week) at the time of interview. They represented 78 percent of the total labor force and the 81.8 million U.S. adults of prime working age who were employed full-time in 1997. As a comparison, results from the 1994 NHSDA are also reported. The 1994 NHSDA had 7,055 NHSDA respondents, age 18-49, who reported working full-time at the time of interview. The introductory chapter examines current illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use among full-time workers, part-time workers, and the unemployed. The remainder of the report focuses on full-time workers because they account for largest percentage of the NHSDA respondents, age 18-49.

Figure 1.1 and Table 1.2 show trends in current illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use among the three employment categories from 1985 through 1997. Both current illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use remained stable in each employment category during the years from 1994 to 1997.

As shown in Table 1.1, about 6.3 million of the 81.8 million full-time workers represented in 1997, or 7.7%, reported having used any illicit drug in the past month; whereas 6 million of the 78.7 million full-time workers represented in 1994, or 7.6%, reported having used any illicit drug in the past month. In 1997, those reporting current (past month) illicit drug use reported significantly higher rates of use for hallucinogens (10.5%) and heroin (2.7%) than were reported in 1994 for hallucinogens (7.2%) and heroin (0.9%).

About 6.2 million (7.6%) of the 81.8 million full-time workers represented in 1997, reported having used alcohol heavily (5 or more drinks per occasion on 5 or more days) in the past month; whereas 6.6 million of the 78.7 million (8.4%) full-time workers represented in 1994 had reported using alcohol heavily in the past month. In both 1994 and 1997, about 1.6 million full-time workers were both current illicit drug users and heavy alcohol users.