Drug Abuse Warning Network

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a public health surveillance system that monitors drug-related emergency department (ED) visits for the nation and for selected metropolitan areas. DAWN estimates pertain to the entire United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. It was implemented nearly 30 years ago to support a specific set of federal policy-making purposes. Its first findings were published in 1973. It was administered by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Since 1992, the Office of Applied Studies of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has been responsible for DAWN operations. SAMHSA is required to collect data on drug-related ED visits under section 505 of the Public Health Service Act.

DAWN is designed to track the impact of drug use, misuse, and abuse on metropolitan areas across the United States. It collects substance use and abuse-related information from data on visits to hospital EDs and drug-related deaths reviewed by medical examiners and coroners (ME/Cs). Information on the demographic characteristics of substance users and the specific drugs involved in each drug-related ED visit or death is also collected.

Drug use-related ED visits, or "episodes," are obtained from a representative sample of 24-hour EDs operating in nonfederal, short-stay general medical/surgical hospitals throughout the coterminous United States. ED-related data provide estimates of the total number of drug use-related ED episodes and the total number of drug mentions for each of 21 selected metropolitan areas and for the nation. DAWN monitors episodes, not individuals. The DAWN report prepared by SAMHSA in 2002 indicated that, in 2000, about 470 EDs participated in DAWN.

Data on drug-related deaths are reviewed by, and obtained from, participating ME/Cs. In 2000, about 140 jurisdictions in 43 metropolitan areas provided these data to DAWN. The number of jurisdictions participating in DAWN varies by location of metropolitan areas. Because the participating jurisdictions are not based on a representative sample, data on drug-related deaths cannot provide estimates of the total number of drug-related deaths for the metropolitan areas or for the nation.

According to the DAWN methodology report prepared by SAMHSA in 2002, DAWN data have been used for purposes of drug scheduling and drug labeling, quantifying the extent of the nation's drug problem, assessing effectiveness of local antidrug efforts, guiding resource allocation decisions, tracking local area drug trends, documenting drug problems and trends, and as a data source for academic research on drug abuse. More detailed information about the use and designs of DAWN can be found in the DAWN's methodology report.