If you asked people whether they believed black teenagers or white teenagers were more likely to end up in a drug or alcohol dependency/abuse situation, I’m betting it would be the opposite of the results of a new extremely broad Duke University study on the subject.
Black and Asian adolescents are much less likely than their white peers to abuse or become dependent on drugs and alcohol, according to a Duke University-led study based on an unusually large sample from all 50 states.
“There is certainly still a myth out there that black kids are more likely to have problems with drugs than white kids, and this documents as clearly as any study we’re aware of that the rate of . . . substance-related disorders among African American youths is significantly lower,” said Dr. Dan Blazer of Duke’s Department of Psychiatry, a senior author of the study.
The findings, based on analysis of confidential federal surveys of 72,561 adolescents ages 12 to 17 from 2005 through 2008, were released Monday and appear in the November issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
About 9 percent of the white teenagers in the study sample used substances in ways that indicated they had disorders, meaning abuse or dependency. That’s nearly twice the percentage of blacks nearly three times the rate for a group classified as Asian/Pacific Islander, which were mostly Asians.. The prevalence of disorders was by far highest among Native Americans, at 15 percent.
Mark S.
The punch line:
Did he say that right after taking a big bong rip? Because policy makers have never given a fuck about facts or research when it comes to Our Glorious War on (Some) Drugs and (Some) Drug Users. The goal has always been to destroy the 4th Amendment and put undesirables in prison.
burnspbesq
And it’s not just alcohol. The well-documented heroin epidemic in the high schools of Plano, Texas in the late 1990s is just one example.
cleek
everyone needs to feel superior to someone.
Villago Delenda Est
Is this a reflection of the banality of life in the suburbs? The kids seemly having a need to escape the reality of their surroundings?
jibeaux
Ha, there’s an ad for Herman Cain (he wants $990,000) coming up for me with this post. Like I’m going to give him money, he’d just spend it on hookers and blow.
Villago Delenda Est
@jibeaux:
The guy used to be a CEO. That’s what they do, you know.
Social Outcast
Who has been pretending that white suburban teens don’t do drunks or have alcohol issues? A few stepford wives maybe, but certainly not TV or the news media, which have been doing stories about this for decades.
I don’t get the angle here. The stereotype about black or hispanic kids in urban neighborhoods is that they all sell drugs and shoot each other. As Mallory Archer once noted, “All they do is drive around listening to raps and shooting all the jobs!”
GregB
This is a reverse high tech lynching.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
All the addicts getting busted for prescription pain killers and heroin around me are white.
schrodinger's cat
To no one’s great surprise Bobo is pimping Romney in his NYT column this morning.
Plantsmantx
You were right in saying “If you asked people…”. A lot of black people are just as likely to believe it’s only a problem in the “hood”, and are just as resistant to accepting the truth of the matter.
SBJules
@jibeaux:
Anyone given to “poor” Herman yet?
Samara Morgan
@schrodinger’s cat: but Erick the son of Erik is NOT.
Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins
this is so great.
:)
DougJ
Very interesting, not that surprising for the reasons you outline but very interesting.
The Other Bob
I am reminded of a study (which I cannot find) on teenage pregnancy that has similar results. Suburban girls are more likely to get pregnant. Also, they are more likely to have an abortion, so I suppose less people notice.
Brian R.
See also “The Lost Children of Rockdale County.”
Samara Morgan
@The Other Bob: i think it was evangelical christian girls…i’ll go look.
Villago Delenda Est
@Samara Morgan:
The comments there are equally interesting.
These assholes are seriously deluded.
ruemara
I went to school in suburbia. The only people I knew who took drugs were the white kids. The lower socioeco kids, we had shit to do. Work after school, parents that would kill us, pray over us for resurrection and kill us again if we were so much as drunk. Nice to see science catching up with the facts.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Social Outcast: I believe the point of this is that the fact that there are a whole lot more blacks in prison for doing drugs than whites even though they are using them a lot less.
Villago Delenda Est
@Samara Morgan:
Paging abstinence spokesmodel Bristol Palin.
burnspbesq
@Samara Morgan:
The first comment succinctly gets to the heart of what is at stake in 2012: the possibility of as many as four Supreme Court vacancies in the next Presidential term.
cervantes
This is well known and has been found again and again. But Black and Hispanic kids are far more likely — by an order of magnitude — to be prosecuted for drug offenses, and when they are, they get much more severe penalties. White kids taking drugs may be seen as a problem, but not as a crime. If the cops catch them, they just confiscate the pot (probably for their own use or for resale), whereas black kids go to court.
This is a national scandal that nobody seems to care about.
Samara Morgan
@The Other Bob: Christian girls are more likely to get pregnant as teens. Most christian girls live in suburbia.
red sex blue sex
southern christian states
Poopyman
@burnspbesq: Well then we’re fucked since they need to be confirmed in the Senate, which will be less Democratic* than it is now.
(Small “d” Democratic would work here as well, methinks.)
Yevgraf
@Villago Delenda Est:
But all those exurban McManse-dwelling MILFs have such nicely manicured yards, perky plastic enhanced tits and they’ve decorated so nicely. Plus, their secretary banging, compulsively gambling, paper shoving husbands are such fine catches, at least according to all the ladies at the exurban megachurch they attend. Whocouldathunk that their kids would be disconnected?
Samara Morgan
@burnspbesq: i do not believe the GOP can field a candidate that can beat Obama.
even if they go to a brokered convention.
what is the chance that a brokered candidate can beat any incumbent?
all our side has to do is get out the vote.
if blacks and hispanics vote for Obama in the same percentages as in 2008, the GOP will need an impossible 65% of the white vote to win.
i think it cant be done.
cleek
@Villago Delenda Est:
any escape might help to smooth
the unattractive truth
that the suburbs have no charms to soothe
the restless dreams of youth
Social Outcast
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): The prison issue is tied into the nature of the drug trade and the government’s law enforcement approach to drugs, which the study doesn’t address. It’s looking at who has a substance abuse problem, and aside from a few stepford moms, I can’t think of anyone who isn’t aware that white suburban kids do drugs and drink. Even when I was a kid 30 years ago there was all kinds of talk about the need to keep drugs out of the schools and raise penalties for serving alcohol to minors and having to cut down on drunk driving because of the need to protect the children, etc.
He’s talking about a perception that hasn’t existed for decades.
jh
African-American from the ‘hood here.
Growing up seeing junkies and winos every single day is strong disencentive to mess with the stuff. I don’t drink alcohol to this day.
Knew a few people who sold drugs, but no one from my generation (Gen X/Y) would dare use them. Most of their customers were older blacks or white.
Drug and Alcohol abuse was viewed as something for the olds who were, walking, talking, suffering advertisements for temperance.
That and the fact that we knew there was a limited safety net (read: hellish, state run rehab) if we got strung out on something.
Few if any, of my white college friends had the benefit of my experience.
cleek
let’s all take a second to note that the article says nothing about affluence or suburbia or inner cities. it talks about race.
jayjaybear
o/` She goes running for the shelter
of her mother’s little helper… o/`
Because prescription-medication addiction isn’t the same thing as junkies, after all…
Trabb's Boy
None of this is surprising. The whole point of the war on drugs was to protect middle-class white kids from the scourge of drugs by making them more expensive, discouraging use. The fact that this increases profits and lures poorer people into dealing was probably originally a matter of indifference. The inevitable violence then “confirmed” racist views about those evil ghetto kids who have to be stomped on or they’ll keep finding ways to get drugs to “our” babies.
I’m assuming Native Americans are stuck in the same inhalant nightmare as the First Nations folks here in Canada. It’s not the same issue, because it doesn’t deal with illegal substances.
Neldob
Addiction is a problem where I live, and probably linked to mental illness, depression, bipolar, etc. People don’t pay enough attention to mental illness. Parents are blind-sided by it, but it’s prevalence is close to 10%. Children think they’re immune to serious shit.
burnspbesq
@Yevgraf:
Stereotype much?
Mattminus
I dunno. Maybe black kids are more distrustful of authority (for good reason) and less likely to admit to drug abuse on a survey?
schlemizel
COME ON! We all ‘know’ its the black kids that sell the drugs. That they have hooked the nice, clean white kids is just part of the international Jewish/Communist conspiracy using black foot soldiers.
– For the humor impaired, the above is sarcasm.
Keith
Newsflash: White people are crazy!
Brachiator
Good post, but this,
This is simpleminded idiocy.
PurpleGirl
@Samara Morgan:
Where the hell do you get that idea? Christian girls live in all sizes of cities — urban, suburban and rural. I know you claim you were raised Catholic but you’re one bigoted person.
Brachiator
Scientific American and a couple of other magazines and web sites have had a very useful series of articles dealing with intelligent ways to interpret data, using Sherlock Holmes as an example (Holmesian Deduction)
The results of the Duke study become less surprising if you can clear out the noise of expectations and stereotypes.
Along these lines, a recent study about junk food is equally counter intuitive. The lazy assumption is that poor people eat more junk food than other folks. But, according to a new study, As income rises, so does fast-food consumption, study finds
Food for thought.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The story I always heard was poor blacks get to see what drug abuse does to you in graphic detail which keeps them away. The problem is drug pushing is one of the few ways poor blacks can make a living and drug pushers tend to get hooked on their own stuff because they handle it all the time.
Jessica
Makes perfect sense to me. If an instance of drug use has a greater likelihood of resulting in arrest for non-whites than whites, non-whites are less likely to use because the risk is too high/whites are more likely to use because they think they’ll get away with it.
Jessica
Makes perfect sense to me. If an instance of drug use has a greater likelihood of resulting in arrest for non-whites than whites, non-whites are less likely to use because the risk is too high/whites are more likely to use because they think they’ll get away with it.
John X.
I’m glad ya’ll already knew this, but this doesn’t change the fact that 75 percent of incarcerated drug offenders are black. It seems someone didn’t get the memo that the drug war should be fought in the mansions and suburbs.
Neldob
Is there any correlation with jail and drug use? Does it mean we should put more white youth in jail?
cckids
@ruemara:
Yes. Here in S. NV, the high schools with the biggest drug/alcohol problems are the private/religious ones. Mostly, I think, because that is where the money is.
The Ancient Randonneur
It’s hard out here for a middle class white kid.
Quaker in a Basement
Other dudes are living in the ghetto
But born in Pacific Heights don’t seem much betto
We’re white punks on dope
jake the snake
@burnspbesq:
I think your sarcasm detector needs some work.
rikryah
this is obvious. Most non-White kids have seen the ravages of drug abuse first hand. there is no six-degrees of separation for them. they don’t have much experience with someone on drugs doing 2 or 3 stints in rehab. they have seen the drugs ravage the addict and the family.
and Bravo, JohnX
lou
If you look at school discipline data, this would not surprise anyone. Whites are caught with drugs at a higher rate than blacks at school and suspended more often for it. Whites and blacks are caught at the same rate carrying weapons.
Blacks get into trouble for things like “defying authority.” but that’s a whole different topic.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Social Outcast:
Police and prosecutors.
Oh, well then. I guess the fact that drug laws are most strictly enforced against blacks and hispanics in black and hispanic neighborhoods isn’t a problem then. Because somehow the “nature of the drug trade” is that only those people are selling the drugs. In the suburbs. Sure.
@rikryah:
So, your contention is that blacks do less drugs than whites because… so many blacks do drugs that black kids have seen the terrible effects. Um. And on the flipside, the reason so many whites do drugs is because so few whites do drugs.
We have differing definitions of “obvious” I think. For example, I think its obvious that you are clinging to racist assumptions about who is doing drugs in this country even though the Duke study we’re discussing states flat out that those racist assumptions aren’t true. Fucking check yourself.
EDIT: I just want to make one thing clear: the truth is that most Americans, regardless of race, have seen the effects of drug abuse and addiction first hand. At least, this is true as long as you include alcohol as a drug, like you should.
xian
@Samara Morgan: it is amusing that Erick states repeatedly that the public does not like Obama when that’s patently false.
AA+ Bonds
It’s taken for granted that college years will involve drug use.
moderateindy
From a drug abuse standpoint, crack hit minority communities much harder than more affluent white communities, and when people think of drug addicts they think of crack heads, and heroin junkies (and now Meth addicts) So there might be a bit of an inclination to think that minorities had a bigger problem with addiction. Of course even a little scrutiny would lead you to the conclusion that kids with more cash are going to be more likely to have substance abuse problems.
Interestingly enough, is the fact that meth is doing to poor rural America what crack did to the inner-city in the 80’s. The kids from suburbia still have enough money to abuse pot, coke, prescription pills and the like, all the drugs that people don’t view as hard drugs. So they still aren’t perceived as having a “serious” problem. Of course meth, like crack is ridiculously addictive and seriously debilitating, so it’s a lot easier to tell who is a meth freak, then it is to tell that someone is dependent on something like vicodin. Perception is not the same as reality.