Supply and Demand:
Dealers See a Rise in the Demand for Methamphetamine on the Streets

The demand for methamphetamine has increased in the past year, according to recent findings in two SANDAG studies involving interviews of a sample of arrestees in San Diego County.

The Criminal Justice Research Division at SANDAG has been administering a National Institute of Justice-funded program in San Diego County, the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM), since 1987. SANDAG is also conducting a program called SAMY (Substance Abuse Monitoring for Youth).

Both programs involve SANDAG researchers conducting interviews with arrestees at local detention facilities and collecting urine samples that are later tested for recent drug use. Arrestees are asked about their drug-use history, and the interviews and testing are voluntary with all information kept strictly confidential.

As part of the ADAM and SAMY Programs, a random sample of men, women, and juveniles booked into San Diego County detention facilities were interviewed regarding their drug use.* Those who used meth were asked additional questions on their use of the drug. Their answers shed light on the challenges facing the justice and service-provider agencies grappling with this issue in San Diego County.

• About one-fifth of the meth-dealing arrestees reported that they sell meth outside of San Diego County (23% of men, 18% of women, and 21% of juveniles). More than one in ten of the men (12%) also sell outside of California, while only five percent of the men and four percent of the juveniles sell outside of the U.S.
  
  
• Alarmingly, about one-third (32%) of all meth-using juvenile arrestees have admitted to carrying a gun or other weapon while purchasing or getting meth, a much larger percentage compared to the adults (16% men and 7% women).

* ADAM is funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). In mid-2002, funding for the juvenile component of ADAM was taken over by the California Border Alliance Group (CBAG), and the name for this project was changed to SAMY. SANDAG runs the San Diego site, which is one of 35 sites across the country.

Project Manager: Dr. Cynthia Burke
(619) 595-5361