NCJRS - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) conducts an annual survey of households nationwide using in-person interviews of individuals ages 12 and older. The survey covers residents in households, non-institutional group quarters (e.g., shelters, rooming/boarding houses, college dormitories, migratory workers' camps, halfway houses), and civilians living on military bases. The respondent sample of approximately 67,500 persons in 2007 was representative of the U.S. general population aged 12 or older. Findings from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2008) include:
- An estimated 503,000 individuals aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of ecstasy, representing 0.2% of the population.
- Approximately 12.4 million people aged 12 or older had used ecstasy at least once in their lives, representing 5.0% of the population.
- There were an estimated 529,000 current users of methamphetamine, aged 12 or older, representing 0.2% of the population.

Sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Monitoring the Future program at the University of Michigan conducts annual anonymous written surveys of nationally representative samples of students in public and private secondary schools throughout the coterminous United States. Approximately 46,348 students in 386 secondary schools participated in the 2008 Monitoring the Future survey. Results from 2008 Monitoring the Future survey (2008) include:
- Among high school seniors surveyed in 2008, 4.3% used MDMA, 1.2% used meth, 1.2% used GHB, 1.5% used ketamine, and 1.3% used Rohypnol within the year prior to being surveyed.
- Approximately 2.4% of 8th graders, 4.3% of 10th graders, and 6.2% of 12th graders reported lifetime use of MDMA. Also, 2.3% of 8th graders, 2.4% of 10th graders, and 2.8% of 12th graders reported lifetime use of methamphetamine.
- Approximately 41.9% of 12th graders, 26.7% of 10th graders, and 14.1% of 8th graders reported that MDMA was "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain.

In 2003, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) implemented a "new" Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which provides data from a review of emergency department (ED) medical records for every patient treated in participating EDs nationwide. The estimates in Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2006: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits (2008) are based on data submitted by 205 hospitals and apply to the entire U.S. Findings from the ED record reviews during 2006 include:
- 1,742,887 total drug-related ED visits
- 79,924 of the drug-related ED visits involved methamphetamine
- 16,749 involved MDMA
- 1,084 involved GHB
- 270 involved ketamine

National Seizure System (NSS) data show that the overall number of reported methamphetamine laboratory seizures nationwide have decreased sharply from 10,013 in 2004 to 2,973 in 2007. Preliminary data indicate that 2,584 lab seizures were reported for January to November 2008 (National Methamphetamine Threat Assessment 2009, National Drug Intelligence Center, 2008).

According to NSS data presented in the National Drug Intelligence Center's National Drug Threat Assessment 2009, seizures of MDMA dosage units (du) in the United States have increased from 5.3 million du seized in 2003 to almost 18.6 million du seized in 2007. Half-year data for 2008 indicate the seizure of approximately 9.7 million du in the U.S.

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