Trends in reported illegal narcotic use in Canada: 1956-1973

Information on reported narcotic users aids in the development of drug control policy as well as programmes of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. In Canada, such information may be obtained from a narcotic users index which classifies known narcotic drug users into three categories: "illicit", "licit", and "professional". This paper presents trend data on known narcotic users in Canada from 1956 to 1973 by category, location, initially reported drug, sex and age. Between 1956 and 1973, the number of known "licit" and "professional" narcotic drug users steadily decreased, while the number of "illicit" narcotic drug users increased by 283 per cent, with the greatest increase taking place after 1969. Heroin was the most frequent initially reported drug (representing between 80 per cent and 89 per cent of known "illicit" narcotic drug users). Cocaine, as an initially reported "narcotic", had the largest proportional increase from 1956 to 1973. There were generally more reported male users than female in all age groups, a trend that increased over the time span considered. There were recent dramatic increases in the numbers and rates of reported users in the 20-24 year-old group, which has become the dominant pattern among new cases in recent years. Although the index on which this paper is based does not provide figures on total narcotic use in Canada, it is a valuable resource for epidemiologic research. This narcotic user index may be used to make minimum estimates of the extent and geographic and social distribution of narcotic-related problems in Canada.