Perceptions of Ease or Difficulty of Getting Illicit Drugs (Tables 11.3 and 11.4)

Table 11.3 presents the percentages of respondents who reported that they thought drugs were fairly easy or very easy to get, if one wanted to get such drugs. Generally, two to three times as many respondents perceived that it would be easy to obtain marijuana compared with "crack," lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and heroin. Although heroin was the substance reported by the smallest percentage of respondents as easy or fairly easy to obtain, the percentage was substantial (31%). Even among adolescents, 21% perceived that heroin would be easy to obtain.

Table 11.3 also shows that there were few differences in perceptions of ease of obtaining substances between the 1996 and 1997 NHSDAs. Overall and among young and middle adults, fewer respondents in 1997 than in 1996 perceived that cocaine would be easy or fairly easy to obtain (43% in 1996 and 41% in 1997). Additionally, among young and middle adults, heroin was significantly less likely to have been perceived as easy to obtain in 1997 compared to 1996 (31% and 33%, respectively).

In Table 11.4, the percentages who reported that they thought getting each drug would be fairly or very easy are presented by whether respondents reported any illicit drug use in the past year. Generally, respondents who had used any illicit drug in the past year were more likely than those who had not used any illicit drug to perceive that it would be easy or fairly easy to obtain various drugs. For example, approximately 87% of those who had used any illicit drug in the past year perceived that it would be easy or fairly easy to get marijuana compared with 57% of those who had not used any illicit drug in the past year. The exceptions to this general pattern was the perceived ease of obtaining heroin by young and middle adults and the ease of obtaining LSD by older adults. In each of these comparisons, those who had used or had not used illicit drugs in the past year were equally likely to perceive that these substances would be easy or fairly easy to obtain.