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Kansas Drug Statistics and Facts

  • Consumption of alcohol by persons under the age of 21 is illegal in Kansas. However, 54.7 percent of high school seniors report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days. Even more concern is the fact that almost 1 in 10 youth, in 6th grade report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days.
  • According to the Substance Abuse Treatment Episode Data Set, in Kansas 19,122 people began treatment for both alcohol and drug and alcohol rehabilitation in 2009. 67.3 percent of that number were males and 32.7 percent were females.
  • The largest uptick in drugs cited as abused was meth, in Kansas. Across the last 14 years, there has been a steady drop in the number of admissions mentioning alcohol and increases in the mentions of Marijuana and Cocaine.
  • In total, 8.2 percent of Kansans aged 12 years or older meet the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence. Among persons in the 18 to 25 years age group, this value is over double the overall population with 20.7 percent of persons aged 18 to 25 years meeting the criteria for alcohol abuse or addiction.
  • The largest increase in drugs cited, in Kansas as abused was meth, which rose from 3 percent in 1992, to 25 percent in 2006.
  • Alcohol abuse or dependence leads to many negative outcomes in Kansas. The number of arrests for Driving Under the Influence, in Kansas is comparable to national estimates with a value of 495.8 per 100,000 population in 2005. This rate is over 4 times higher among males than females.
  • In Kansas, just a small portion of the overall deaths are connected to illegal drug use. Kansas has a lower than national crude rate of imprisonment for sale/consumption/possession of illegal drugs and meth lab and equipment seizures have declined since 2001.
  • Kansas is not exempt from the rise in prescription drug overdose deaths and injury. Southeast Kansas, in particular, has seen an increase in prescription drug-related overdose deaths. From the 206 total autopsies performed in a 3 county area in Southeast Kansas, about 18 percent of the deaths were over-dose deaths. 70% of these deaths were caused by prescription drugs.
  • According to the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, the number of drug and alcohol rehabs in Kansas has increased from 182 in 2002, to 236 in 2006.
  • About 7 percent of Kansas residents reported previous month use of illegal drugs; the national average was 8 percent.
  • In Kansas, 3,801 people went to treatment for alcohol addiction and 4,687 who went for alcohol mixed with a secondary drug. About 72 percent of those admitted were male, and 28 percent were female.
  • Heroin is becoming the cheaper substitute for Opiates as Kansas continue to break down on the pill mills making the cost of opiates too expensive.
  • Among those entering treatment, Marijuana was the most frequently cited drug among leading drug treatment admissions in the of Kansas at 5,506. Of these admissions, 73.2 percent were male, and 26.8 percent were female.
  • The number of people, in Kansas, that entered drug rehabilitation for amphetamine dependence, in 2009, was 2,059 which increased from the previous year of 1,819.
  • 1,364 people who smoked Cocaine, in Kansas, went to substance abuse treatment, and an additional 436 went for ingesting Cocaine by other means in 2009.
  • 835 persons were admitted to treatment for Opiates other than Heroin. The information indicates that the last year there were 579 people that went to treatment, which supports the growing epidemic nationally of prescription drug abuse.
  • The number of Meth laboratory seizure incidents in the state of Kansas increased 43 percent. The number of Meth laboratory seizure incidents in the state of Kansas increased 43 percent, from 100 incidents in 2007 to 143 incidents in 2009, according to data from the El Paso Intelligence Centers National Seizure System.
  • Kansas drug-induced deaths (10.6 per 100,000 population) were lower than the national rate (12.7 per 100,000).
  • In Kansas, as a direct consequence of drug use, 294 persons died, in 2007. That figure is compared to the number of people in Kansas who died from car accidents (447) and firearms (292) in the same year
  • Overall, 2.7 percent of Kansans meet clinical criteria for illegal drug abuse or dependence, which is about the same as national estimates.