LITTLE ROCK — A six-month state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention study substantiated what law enforcement and drug counselors already knew about Northwest Arkansas' methamphetamine use: It's significant.
The federally funded study is based on interviews and urine tests of inmates in the Washington, Pulaski and Drew county jails. The Washington County jail statistics were, by far, the worst in the state and put the county's meth problem on par with rates in Las Vegas.
The study, known as the Substance Abuse Need for Treatment among Arrestees Study, evaluated inmates at the three Arkansas sites from October 1997 to March 1998. It is designed to determine the drug-treatment needs of the various areas, said Ray L. Stephens, associate bureau director.
Stephens said 214 Washington County inmates took part in the study. In Pulaski County, 297 inmates agreed to participate, along with 56 Drew County inmates. The inmates were interviewed and given urine tests within 48 hours of their arrests.
Of the 214 inmates interviewed at the Fayetteville-based jail, 55 people -- 25.7 percent -- admitted using methamphetamine within the previous three days. Comparatively, only 19 percent of inmates -- 149 of 786 inmates -- in Las Vegas who took part in a similar study admitted meth use.
To compare those numbers with the other two Arkansas sites, 5.1 percent (15 of 297 inmates) of Pulaski County inmates reported using meth within three days and 7.1 percent (four out of 56) reported such use in Drew County.
Fewer inmates agreed to submit urine to allow the study workers to test for drugs.
But 33 of the 175 Washington County inmates who agreed to the urine test tested positive for methamphetamine. That's 18.9 percent. Again, that's closer to the Las Vegas rates than the other Arkansas numbers. About 24 percent of the 576 Las Vegas inmates who gave samples -- 139 people -- tested positive for meth.
In Pulaski County, about 3 percent of the 271 inmates who agreed to the urine tests, or eight inmates, tested positive for meth. Only two of the 41 Drew County inmates -- 4.9 percent -- tested positive for meth.
Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention officials said the Washington County percentages were higher than most jails studied in 33 other states, but official data from the studies are still being compiled and were unavailable.