The inner city and drug use : initial findings from an epidemiological study (1997)

FRANÇAIS :
L'estimation de la gravité des problèmes de drogue dans les villes est souvent basée sur des données partielles. L'étude longitudinale d'une cohorte d'afro-américains, à Woodlawn, au sud de Chicago, montre que la prévalence d'usage courant y est peu différente de celle d'un échantillon représentatif de toute la population nationale. La prévalence au cours de l'année passée est cependant plus élevée. Il faut noter que l'étude ne prend pas en compte les 4% de population incarcérée, souvent pour usage de drogues, et n'explique pas le fait que le trafic de drogues soit très important dans le centre ville.
ENGLISH :
Although scientific and policy statements regarding drugs often suggest that there are grave problems of drug use within America's inner cities, the evidence that supports these statements is often based on anecdotal or incomplete data. This study of African-American adults from the Woodlawn study followed longitudinally partially fills that gap, at least for learning more about those who spend some or all of their childhood within an inner city neighborhood. We found few differences between the lifetime prevalence of drug use and a national representative sample of adults of the same age range. Nevertheless, those from the Woodlawn cohort had higher rates of use of illicit drugs in the past year than the national sample, especially those still living in areas with high rates of poverty. Additionally, reports of heavy drug trafficking were much greater in the inner city areas than in the suburbs. (Authors'abstract)