Washington D.C. Adults are Nation?s Top Drug and Alcohol Abusers

According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), adults in Washington D.C. abuse more alcohol than anyone else in the country.

The report finds that 8.1 percent of adults 26 or older in D.C. are alcohol dependent.

The Washington Examiner notes that alcohol abuse has been a chronic issue in the nation's capital, affecting residents from the city's streets to former First Lady Betty Ford in the White House.

Washington D.C. also ranked high for marijuana and cocaine use.

The District was included among the 10 states where residents most frequently reported smoking marijuana within the last month. According to the survey, Alaska residents inhale the most, with 11.5 percent saying they lit up within four weeks of the survey.

While the survey reports that residents 17 and under have some of the lowest cocaine use in the country, District adults were among the top coke users in the United States with 3.78 percent of residents claiming to have used cocaine over a one year period.

Experts point to the fact that wide availability of drugs, high stress levels and difficulties getting abusers into treatment fuel the city's persistently stratospheric rates.

SAMHSA's numbers are based on data from the 2008 and 2009 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.

Using data drawn from interviews with 137,436 persons from throughout the country the report provides a state-by-state breakdown along 25 different measures of substance abuse and mental health problems including illicit drug use, binge drinking, alcohol and illicit drug dependence, tobacco use, serious mental illness, and major depressive episode.

The full report is available online at http://store.samhsa.gov/product/State-Estimates-of-Substance-Use-and-Mental-Disorders-from-the-2008-2009-National-Survey-on-Drug-Use-and-Health-NSDUH-/SMA11-4641.