Monitoring the Future Study (MTF)

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Monitoring the Future Study (MTF), sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institute on Drug Abuse, is conducted under a grant by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The MTF is a continuing series of surveys intended to assess the changing lifestyles, values, and preferences of American youth, including drug use and related attitudes. The MTF provides a somewhat greater level of detail about youth drug use that the other primary national drug use data set, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA).

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is an ongoing drug abuse data collection system sponsored by SAMHSA’s Office of Applied Studies. DAWN collects data from two types of respondents: (1) hospital emergency departments and (2) medical examiners. The DAWN ED component relies on a nationally representative sample of hospital to produce information on the number and characteristics of drug abuse related visits to such EDs in the coterminous United States and in 21 metropolitan areas. The DAWN ME component produces information on drug abuse related deaths, based on reports from participating medical examiners. DAWN cases (drug-related ED visits or deaths) include detailed information about the abuse of illegal drugs or legal substances when used for nonmedical purposes.

The 1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse provides a comprehensive description of substance use and abuse in the United States. Despite its limitations, such as poor coverage of some populations, possible underreporting of drug using behavior by respondents, and poor precision for small population subgroups and rare behaviors, the NHSDA provides information to assess trends, patterns, and relationships associated with substance abuse. The data are most useful when studied in conjunction with other available data sources, each one produced independently and with its own strengths and limitations.

The Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) system is a monitoring system collaboratively administered by the National Institute of Justice and 24 booking facility sites across the nation.

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