Drug use among minority youth

Interviews with a nationwide smaple of young and low-income black, chicano, and Caribbean men and women, as well as their non-minority counterparts, reveal that the majority disapprove of illicit drug use. Although one-half of the youth report having had experience with illicit drugs, most have renounced their involvement and no longer use them. Of the racial or ethnic groups queried, white youth are most likely to have ingested illicit drugs. These data, coupled with other findings drawn from a more lengthy report, lead to the conclusion that dysfunctional patterns of drug ingestion among many low-income minorities are not pronounced.