RACE AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF DRUG DELIVERY LAWS IN ...

SAMHSA’S HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG USE AND HEALTH
In recent years federal researchers have incorporated questions about
involvement in drug sales in SAMHSA’s annual Survey on Drug Use and Health.
In particular, the survey now includes the question: “have you sold illegal drugs
in the past year?” 77 The results of the survey pertaining to Seattle residents
indicate that in the years 2002–2006, an average of 4.7 percent of all Seattle
residents aged 12 and older sold an (unspecified) illegal drug in the previous
year. Extrapolated to the Seattle population aged 12 and older, 78 these figures
suggest that from 2002 to 2006, an average of 23,547 Seattle residents sold an
illegal drug at least once in the previous year.
Notably, reported involvement in drug sales among white residents was greater
than for Seattle residents as a whole. Specifically, 5.2 percent of white Seattle
residents aged 12 and older, but 4.7 percent of all Seattle residents, indicated that
they had sold an illegal drug in the previous year. Although the sample size for
other racial and ethnic groups was suppressed by federal researchers, these
results nonetheless suggest two things: many Seattle residents sell illegal drugs,
and a clear majority of those who report doing so are white. Indeed,
extrapolating these figures to the Seattle population as a whole suggests that 76.1
percent of those who sell illegal drugs in Seattle are white. 79
THE 2007–2008 SEATTLE NEEDLE EXCHANGE SURVEY
The Seattle-King County Needle Exchange Survey also provides information about
the race/ethnicity of Seattle needle exchangers and the race/ethnicity of the
person(s) from whom they obtain their drugs. 80 Needle exchangers were asked to
identify any illicit drug(s) they had recently obtained and the race/ethnicity of
77 Unfortunately, the SAMHSA surveyors did not ask respondents to identify the type of drug sold.
78 Population figures for this calculation were taken from U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000,
Summary File 1, Table P12. Half of those in the 10–14 age range were combined with younger
residents and subtracted from general population figures to calculate the proportion of the
resident population aged 12 and older.
79
These calculations were based on 2000 U.S. Census Bureau population counts provided in
Tables QT-P6, P12, and P121; half of those in the 10–14 age range were combined with younger
residents and subtracted from general population figures to calculate the proportion of the
resident population and white resident population aged 12 and older.
80
In Washington State, drug delivery includes any knowing physical transfer of a controlled
substance to another party (such as sharing or selling drugs) or the facilitation of any knowing
transfer of these substances (Rev. Code Wash. 69.50.401). Although the needle exchange
survey does not record whether the purchaser paid cash for the drugs obtained, this distinction
is not relevant, as any knowing transfer of drugs meets the legal definition of drug delivery.
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