San Jose is the third largest city in California and is the throne (county seat) of Santa Clara County. Sitting in the San Francisco Bay area and being home to over 7 million people this area has seen its share of drug abuse and addiction activity. Addiction and the societal problems that go along with it is a serious problem through the region. There is a significant need to create more comprehensive measures to increase the level of awareness concerning these issues on many social strata.
The overall outlook on drugs is increasingly apathetic with countless failed attempts by law enforcement to improve, or reduce drug abuse and addiction statistic many feel there is too much money being made. San Jose, California is no different as marijuana is the most commonly abused drug in California. Treatment admissions for marijuana addiction are high and increasing. According to the California Alcohol and Drug Data System, marijuana treatment admissions rose from 20,143 in 2000 to 23,531 in 2003, with treatment admissions skyrocketing up nearly 1/3 in 2010.
Methamphetamine, supplied by Mexican drug cartels and Asian gangs is widely available. The drug continues to be a huge source of the problems with substance abuse in this area. Methamphetamine abuse rates seemed to be leveling off in the 1990's with just fewer than 20% of arrestees testing positive for the drug. The rate increased drastically from 2000 to 2003 with just over 35% testing positive. In recent years, like San Diego, meth abuse among women in San Jose is alarmingly high with over 40% of female arrestees testing positive for meth.
Mexican drug cartels have black tar heroin readily available and is the only kind of heroin obtainable in the San Jose area. Heroin addicts who cannot obtain the drug often take clonazepam to stave off withdrawal symptoms. Heroin abuse and addiction is one of the hardest drugs to overcome as the withdrawal symptoms are significantly worse than very a severe case of influenza. Although The National Drug Intelligence Center reports show cocaine abuse falls behind methamphetamine and heroin, cocaine is the next drug threat in Northern California. Both powder and crack cocaine is steadily abused in this region, but little cocaine in either form is sold in San Jose.
There are many resources for drug abuse and addiction treatment near San Jose. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration directory of treatment facilities show 384 substance abuse and drug rehabilitation programs within a 100 mile radius of San Jose. Most of these treatment options are outpatient counseling and rehabilitation programs, methadone maintenance programs or short-term drug rehab programs. There are other longer term drug rehab available in the Northern California area that consist of non-denominational Christian or Bio-Physical/Cognitive/Educational drug rehab programs. The Christian based programs vary between 12-18 month inpatient rehab programs with Bio-physical programs averages a 4-6 month residential stay in treatment.