THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF COCAINE AND OPIATE ABUSE IN URBAN CANADA

This study describes the epidemiology of cocaine and heroin abuse in u rban Canada as part of an initial report on a national substance abuse surveillance system, the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on D rug Use. Data pertaining to prevalence of use, law enforcement, treatm ent, morbidity and mortality of cocaine and heroin were obtained from the appropriate health and law enforcement institutions lin six sentin el cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax . Cocaine and heroin appear to be more available in Vancouver than in the remaining cities. In all CCENDU cities, large proportions of perso ns in treatment programs for substance abuse identified cocaine as the ir major addiction; however, there is considerable variation in treatm ent utilization regarding heroin. Vancouver ranks first in terms of th e per capita number of cocaine- and heroin-related hospital separation s and mortality rate. Cocaine abuse appears to be an emerging problem in Calgary, Winnipeg and Halifax, and opiate abuse appears to be an em erging problem in Calgary.