Introduction

The purpose of this report is to provide policymakers, program leaders and staff, health administrators, scientists, and others with information that may help them understand the nature and extent of illegal drug use, associated behaviors, and problems that now affect our Nation’s racial/ethnic minority populations and the current non-Hispanic White majority population. Its content has been culled from the best and most recent reports on these topics.

Data sources for this report include the U.S. Census and large- and small-scale epidemiological studies that have been collecting and analyzing data on the incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, and other adverse health consequences of illegal drug use in the United States, with a general restriction to investigations with ample coverage of two or more racial/ethnic populations. Study sponsors comprise an array of Federal agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of the Census (the Census Bureau); the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its constituent units, such as the National Center for Health Statistics; the Department of Education; the Department of Justice; the National Institute of Justice (NIJ); and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). NIDA-sponsored research programs of special prominence in this report include the Monitoring the Future (MTF) project and the Native American youth surveys conducted by the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research in Fort Collins, Colorado. Information on youth’s attitudes toward drugs also is included, based on surveys conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America via its Partnership Attitude Tracking Survey (PATS).