NCJ Number
195203
Journal
American Journal of Public Health Volume: 91 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 1987-1994
Date Published
2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The authors explored whether or not assumptions about neighborhood drug use patterns were valid and discussed how drug abuse visibility can and should impact drug use prevention program distribution.
Abstract
This article summarizes the results of a study of illicit drug use and patterns across 2,100 United States neighborhoods. The authors sought to develop a study to explore the validity of the conventional wisdom that illicit drug use is concentrated in poor, urban, and minority communities. The authors further noted that social programs designed to decrease demand for illicit drugs has been concentrated in those communities with the perceived greater drug involvement. The study was conducted by randomly selected telephone survey. Surveys were administered to 47,482 respondents in the spring of 1995, 1997, and 1999. For the purposes of the samples, neighborhoods were defined as census tracts. Survey questions were developed from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The authors found that drug use in disadvantaged neighborhoods was only 1.3 times more likely, but the drug use that occurs in those neighborhoods is substantially more visible. Therefore, the authors recommend that targeted enforcement and demand reduction programs for these areas should focus on the reduction of visible drug use and drug markets, instead of drug abuse prevention in general as the main aspect of these programs. 3 tables, 68 references