Connecticut is amongst those states ranked highest in the country for past year marijuana use by adults aged 18 to 25. Nearly 10K treatment admissions each year are the result of marijuana addiction. Much of the marijuana that makes its way into the state comes from Mexico although it is also trafficked into Boston's Logan Airport as well as New Yorks JFK and then into Connecticut.

Alcohol abuse is a growing problem in Connecticut amongst all age groups. The state ranks amongst the highest in the nation for past month alcohol use amongst youth aged 12 and over, young adults aged 18-25 and adults 26 years and older. Many treatment admissions are the result of legal action taken against those who have been arrested for DUI, disorderly intoxication or other alcohol related crimes. The combination of alcohol with illicit street drugs, prescription medications or over-the-counter medications only adds to the concern.

Nearly one-third of all treatment admissions account for alcohol dependence. Thousands of people are hospitalized each year for alcohol related injury or illness. In fact, studies estimate that as many as 40% of injured patients test positive for alcohol intoxication when admitted to the emergency room.

Cocaine abuse, though not as problematic in Connecticut as sometimes seen in states located along the southern-most region of the country, is slightly higher than national averages amongst residents. Most cocaine is trafficked up the I-95 corridor into New York and then transported by busses or trains into the state of Connecticut. Cocaine related deaths have been steadily on the rise since the late 1990s despite efforts of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration of Hartford to reduce availability of the drug throughout the state.

The majority of treatment admissions in Connecticut are the result of users seeking help for heroin addiction. With the imposing of prescription drug monitoring programs which reduce the availability of prescription opiates such as Oxycodone or Oxycontin on the streets, a number of users have turned to heroin causing a spike in the number of treatment admissions for heroin addiction throughout the state.

Thousands of grams of methamphetamine are seized annually in Connecticut and clandestine labs are consistently being seized by law enforcement officials in an effort to reduce the impact that this drug has on residents of the state. Unfortunately, methamphetamine abuse continues to surge in Connecticut accounting for thousands of treatment admissions, injuries, and incidents each year.

The greatest dangers of club drugs in Connecticut comes as a result of methamphetamine being pressed into pills and sold as "ecstasy". A number of drug overdoses and fatal complications result from the unintended use of methamphetamine which users mistakenly believe is the common club drug, ecstasy. In addition to the "mistaken identity", actual MDMA and similar club drugs also cause reason for alarm as users are at risk for a range of side effects including severe depression which can lead to suicidal tendencies.

Despite efforts to combat prescription drug abuse in Connecticut though Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs which store data for drugs in Schedules II-V into a central database which is used by healthcare providers and pharmacists to prevent excessive drug prescribing, addiction to prescription drugs continues to be a widespread problem throughout the state.