http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/07/study-whites-more-likely-to-abuse-drugs-than-blacks/
QuoteBlack youth are arrested for drug crimes at a rate ten times higher than that of whites. But new research shows that young African Americans are actually less likely to use drugs and less likely to develop substance use disorders, compared to whites, Native Americans, Hispanics and people of mixed race.
"Our goal is to alert people to the burden of drug problems and also to how some of our concern about who has these problems may not be true," says Dr. Dan Blazer, senior author of the study and a professor of psychiatry at Duke University. "There's a perception among many individuals that African Americans as a group — regardless of socioeconomic status — tend to abuse or use drugs at higher rate and this [does not support] that."
Using data from 72,561 youth interviewed for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, researchers found that 37% of those aged between 12 and 17 had used alcohol or other drugs at least once in the past year. Nearly 8% met criteria for a substance use disorder — either the less severe "substance abuse" diagnosis or the more problematic "substance dependence," which is more commonly known as addiction.
The study, which was published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, controlled for variables like socioeconomic status because rates of severe drug problems tend to be greater amongst the poor. Despite this, Native American youth fared worst, with 15% having a substance use disorder, compared to 9.2% for people of mixed racial heritage, 9.0% for whites, 7.7% for Hispanics, 5% for African Americans and 3.5% for Asians and Pacific Islanders.
Even more evidence that the way drug arrests are carried out is inherently racist, beyond what we knew before. Which was pretty damning in the first place.
It'll be interesting to see if demographic changes eventually force a more balanced perspective on race and crime, since it seems "facts" and "reality" aren't having much of an effect right now.
Quotecontrolled for variables like socioeconomic status because rates of severe drug problems tend to be greater amongst the poor.
I wonder what the results look like if they don't do that. Blacks are almost three times as likely to be poor than whites are, so if the second part of that statement is true then their overall rate would be higher. I seriously doubt, though, that it would be remotely high enough to justify a tenfold higher arrest rate.