Description of Sources

All Pulse Check sources are asked to describe their impressions about changes and trends in the use and markets for heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and emerging drugs.

Nine ethnographers and epidemiologists were contacted for this report. In this issue, ethnographic/epidemiologic sources reported from: Bridgeport, Connecticut; Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; Orange County, New York; Denver, Colorado; San Antonio/El Paso, Texas; Miami, Florida; Seattle, Washington; and Austin, Texas. For clarity, Orange County, New York will be referred to as New York State in the ethnographers' reports and corresponding tables in order to distinguish that it is a suburban rather than urban area. The appendix lists all sources contacted.

In this issue, representatives of police departments reported from ten cities: Cleveland, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Miami, Florida; San Antonio, Texas; Trenton, New Jersey; Columbia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. For security reasons, the names of law enforcement contacts are not published.

Sixty-eight substance abuse treatment providers were contacted for this issue. Treatment providers were selected randomly from a national database of providers. They represent both small and large programs from all regions of the country. The appendix describes how they are selected and the types of information they provide.