This interactive map from the Las Vegas Sun accompanies a feature article on Nevada’s no.-1 ranking in national rates of narcotic abuse. You can pick a narcotic medication and a year since 1997 and see the relative rates of consumption in the 50 states. (NB: although the map accompanies an article about drug abuse and the data on which the map is based came from the D.E.A., it details consumption and as far as I can tell does not distinguish licit from illicit use.) Some who pointed me to this map were intrigued by the regional differences in choice of particular narcotic drug. This is probably a function of regional prescribing differences among physicians, marketing and distribution decisions by drug manufacturers, and the shaping of consumer preferences largely by word of mouth. What is more interesting is the overall increase across the years listed. Is this a function of increasing abuse or dramatic increases in rates of legitimate prescribing? (All the medications listed are manufactured pharmaceuticals, not cooked up in backyard home labs.)

It would be more interesting to see this type of data for other classes of drugs of abuse as well — cocaine, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, hallucinogens, ‘club drugs’ etc., as well as heroin. In addition to reflecting differences in distribution patterns, such a comprehensive map might have something to say about regional lifestyle and temperamental differences. (Pet peeve of mine: many people use the term ‘narcotic’ broadly, and inaccurately, as a synonym for illicit drugs in general, or for drugs with addictive potential in general. The term means neither of these; it is synonymous with ‘opiates’.)