Selected Demographic Characteristics and Patterns of Drug Abuse among Treated Addicts from a Suburban Community *†

Summary The nemesis of drug addiction, once regarded as a black, lower class, urban problem, is now considered a problem affecting all ethnic and socioeconomic groups, as well as suburban communities. Current statistics on drug addiction, however, are based primarily on urban populations and reflect little knowledge of drug use in the suburbs. This paper presents not only a description of those individuals entering treatment at the Alba‐Neck Halfway House, which is located in a suburban area on Long Island, New York, but it also compares those addicts who dropped out of treatment prematurely, with those addicts who completed treatment.