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Half of all youth arrested test positive for drugs Criminal Justice

In 2006, 51 percent of juvenile arrestees tested positive for at least one illicit substance, a trend that has held since 2000. This and more data on juvenile arrestees is in a new report, 2006 Juvenile Arrestee Drug Use in the San Diego Region, released by SANDAG.

The SANDAG Criminal Justice Research Division conducts interviews with local arrestees regarding their drug use as part of the Substance Abuse Monitoring (SAM) program. The purpose of the SAM program is to identify drug use trends among adult and juvenile offenders in order to develop appropriate strategies for the prevention of drug abuse.

This latest SAM report is the first in a three-part series presenting data collected in 2006. As part of this study, a total of 160 youth were interviewed at Juvenile Hall and provided a urine sample during two separate months in 2006. Other findings in the report include:

  • The one-year spike in meth use reported for 2005 did not continue in 2006, decreasing to a six-year low of ten percent testing positive for the drug.

  • The average age of initiating gateway drug use was less than 13 years and most individuals had used more than just one of these substances (i.e., alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana).

    Most of the youth interviewed reported having a stable residence, but many did not live with their parents, said they did not like school, had a history of running away, had some type of gang affiliation, and were not engaged in positive extracurricular activities.

  • In addition to their drug use, many youth interviewed also reported participating in other associated risky behaviors, including driving in a car with someone who was under the influence.

In 2006, SAM was supported by the California Border Alliance Group, the County of San Diego Alcohol and Drug Services, and SANDAG member agencies through the Criminal Justice Clearinghouse. The interviews also were made possible by the cooperation of the San Diego County Probation Department.

Project Manager:
Cynthia Burke, Director, Criminal Justice Research Division
cbu@sandag.org, (619) 699-1910