Office of National Drug Control Policy -- Publications -- Pulse Check: Trends in Drug Abuse, Summer 1998

Table 8
Law Enforcement Report on Marijuana

	City
	Birmingham, AL	Los Angeles, CA	Denver, CO	Bridgeport, CT
Use	Up	Up	Up	Up
Who's Using/ Change in Users	"Everyone"	Teenagers, Latinos, African Americans; more males than females.	Variety of users; all races.
Drugs in Combination	Cocaine	Alcohol	Methamphetamine
Who's Selling	Sellers are in their 20's to early 30's.	Latinos, African-Americans; these sellers do not sell other drugs.	Mexican cartels	Sold in housing projects, low rent areas; Jamaicans.
Purchase Amount/Purity	$700-$1200 per pound.	$5 per bag; good purity.	$80 per ounce.	$5 per bag
Other/ Comments				"It seems like more homeless girls are doing marijuana."

Table 8 (cont'd.)
Law Enforcement Report on Marijuana

	City
	Washington, DC	Miami, FL	Chicago, IL	Boston, MA
Use	Up	Up	Stable	Up slightly
Who's Using/ Change in Users	Young users; 50/50-male/female.	Increased amount of younger users.	Increased amount of young users.	Everyone; many college students.
Drugs in Combination	Laced with PCP, crack, powder cocaine.	Cocaine	Alcohol
Who's Selling		Multi-drug sellers	Gang structures; usually sold in Latino areas.	Everybody; wholesalers in the city.
Purchase Amount/Purity	$10 per bag (800-1000 mg per bag); average purity.	$50 for 1/4 ounce; $200 per ounce; $3,000 per pound high quality.	$10 for 2.5-3 grams; increasing purity.	Variable price; $1500-2000 per pound; variable purity-homegrown more potent.
Other/ Comments				Marijuana being imported from CA & other western States via Federal Express.

Table 8 (cont'd.)
Law Enforcement Report on Marijuana

	City
	Baltimore, MD	Columbia, MD	Trenton, NJ	New York, NY
Use	Up	Up	Up slightly	Stable
Who's Using/ Change in Users	Wide range of users; increase in younger users.	Wide range in age and ethnicity.	All races; 14-45 years; both male and female users.	Both male and female users; every ethnicity; 14+ years.
Drugs in Combination	Cocaine	PCP	Cocaine
Who's Selling	"Everybody"; usually do not sell other drugs.	Wide variety of sellers; depends on user population.	Market is controlled by Jamaicans; distributed by all ethnicities.	"Everybody"; dealers often use beepers; usually do not sell other drugs.
Purchase Amount/Purity	Smallest available amount: $10 per bag.	$30 for 1/8 ounce; $50 for 1/4 ounce.	$5 per gram; $20 for 5 grams; price seems to have decreased.	$20-$25 per bag; high purity in hydroponically produced marijuana.
Other/ Comments	More people are growing indoors.

Table 8 (cont'd.)
Law Enforcement Report on Marijuana

	City
	Cleveland, OH	Eugene, OR	Austin, TX
Use	Stable	Stable at high level	Stable
Who's Using/ Change in Users	Variety of users.	All ages; mostly white users.	Wide variety of users.
Drugs in Combination	PCP
Who's Selling	"Everybody"	Young sellers; teens-early 20's distribute at the street level; also sell LSD, psilocybin.	Wide variety of sellers.
Purchase Amount/Purity	$150 per ounce.	Mexican (low purity): $10-$15 per gram; $100-$200 per ounce; $2500 per pound. Home-grown (high purity): $20 per gram; $350 per ounce; $5000-$6000 per pound.	$800 per pound.
Other/ Comments

Table 8 (cont'd.)
Law Enforcement Report on Marijuana

	City
	San Antonio, TX	Seattle, WA	Yakima, WA
Use	Stable	Stable	Stable
Who's Using/ Change in Users	All ethnicities; teens-60's; both male and female users.	Mostly young, Caucasian users.	Both male and female users; all races; 15-50 years.
Drugs in Combination	Alcohol	Methamphetamine Cocaine Opiates
Who's Selling	Predominantly males; mostly Latinos and Caucasians.	Predominantly Mexicans; sell heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine also.	Mexicans sell at wholesale level; at retail level, mostly male and female Caucasians; retail sellers do not usually sell other drugs.
Purchase Amount/Purity		$10-$20 per bag; $500-$1,000 per pound for Mexican; $2,000-$5,000 per pound for sinsemilla.	$1,100 per pound for Mexican; $4,000 per pound for sinsemilla; 10% THC.
Other/ Comments		Besides Mexican grown marijuana, there is also a lot of field grown and indoor grown marijuana.

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