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

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9.6 percent primarily abused other serious drugs. Because the cocaine category in the 2005–2007 data includes all forms and modes of administration (e.g. smoked, injected and inhaled cocaine), the proportion of persons admitted to public treatment programs that primarily abused crack cocaine for that time period cannot be determined. However, data regarding mode of administration among Seattle residents who abused cocaine and were admitted to public treatment programs in the year 2000 121 indicate that 57.3 percent of those who primarily abused cocaine and were admitted to public treatment programs primarily abused smoked cocaine (i.e. crack cocaine); the remainder either injected or inhaled their cocaine. 122 Using this figure, we can estimate that 57.3 percent of those admitted to a public treatment program who primarily abused cocaine abused crack cocaine. If this figure is applied to current treatment admission data, the results indicate that a plurality (34.8 percent) of the Seattle residents admitted to public drug treatment programs primarily abused heroin, 22.4 percent primarily abused crack cocaine (i.e. smoked cocaine), 16.7 percent primarily abused injected or inhaled cocaine, 16.6 percent primarily abused methamphetamine and 9.6 percent primarily abused another unidentified serious drug (see Figure 16). 40% Figure 16. Seattle Treatment Admissions by Primary Drug of Abuse, 2005-2007 30% 20% 10% Heroin Smoked cocaine Other cocaine Methamphetamine Other Serious Drug 0% Sources: 2005–2007 TARGET data provided by Caleb-Banta, Research Scientist, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington. Data regarding route of administration were provided by Fritz Wrede, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse of Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services. 121 Mode-of-administration data are for the year 2000 and were provided by Fritz Wrede, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse of Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services. 122 Of the remainder, 30 percent injected cocaine and 12 percent inhaled it. 81
In short, even if we limit our attention to more serious and low-income drug abusers, and ignore recreational (and mostly white) users such as the 26,000 Seattle residents who report recently using ecstasy, it appears that crack cocaine is the drug of choice among less than one-fourth of Seattle’s poor drug abusers. A larger proportion—about one-third—of those admitted to public treatment programs primarily abused heroin. Still, if it were true that crack cocaine users made far more frequent purchases than users of other serious drugs, this might mean that a majority of Seattle drug transactions involve crack cocaine. However, the evidence does not support this conjecture. According to the best available data, crack cocaine users do make more frequent monthly purchases than methamphetamine and powder cocaine users, but fewer average monthly purchases than heroin users. Specifically, ADAM survey data indicate that powder cocaine users typically made 4 purchases of that substance per month, methamphetamine users made 3 purchases per month, crack cocaine users made 15 monthly purchases and heroin users made 20.5 purchases per month. 123 In sum, the best available data indicate that recreational users of powder cocaine and ecstasy significantly outnumber more serious abusers of heroin, crack cocaine and other serious drugs. Even if we focus solely on low-income drug abusers, treatment admission data indicate that there are more heroin abusers than crack cocaine abusers in Seattle. The evidence also indicates that those who use heroin make more frequent purchases than those who use crack cocaine. When combined with the fact that there are also many recreational users and abusers of ecstasy, powder cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription drugs, it becomes clear that a significant majority of the serious drug transactions that take place in Seattle involve a drug other than crack cocaine. Thus, it does not appear that the frequency with which crack cocaine is exchanged explains the preponderance of crack cocaine delivery arrests. Moreover, the analysis of the downtown market casts doubt on the frequency hypothesis. Recall that the needle exchange survey results indicate that 12 123 Data regarding the number of past-month acquisitions and location of last drug transaction are based on the results of ADAM surveys with King County respondents arrested by the SPD between January 2000 and September 2001. (Ad-hoc analysis of Seattle ADAM data by Joe Kabel, Ph.D., Seattle ADAM Site Director, Looking Glass Analytics, and Michael Gilson, Ph.D., Research Analyst, Looking Glass Analytics). The median number of past month acquisitions is presented in the text above. Unfortunately, Seattle-King County is no longer included in the ADAM survey so these figures cannot be updated. 82
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RACE AND DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT IN SE
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This report was commissioned as par
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES PAGE TAB
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Figure 9. Purposeful Seattle Drug D
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SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS FINDING 1 T
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FINDING 4 The focus on crack cocain
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INTRODUCTION Less than 5 percent of
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RACIAL DISPARITIES IN SEATTLE DRUG
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Table 1. Black and White Drug Arres
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esearchers found that rates of drug
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RESEARCH DESIGN AND ORGANIZATION OF
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serious drugs in Seattle are white.
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users: “Persons at almost all lev
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as the goal is to provide samples o
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percent of white Seattle residents,
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acial/ethnic groups. These data ind
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When approaching clients, surveyors
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youth. However, these surveys likel
Page 39 and 40: 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Page 41 and 42: or partially publicly-funded treatm
Page 43 and 44: Primary Drug of Abuse Cocaine (all
Page 45 and 46: system at the time of their death w
Page 47 and 48: did not transfer drugs to the buyer
Page 49 and 50: Insofar as many drug users knowingl
Page 51 and 52: the person who provided these subst
Page 53 and 54: Table 7. Racial and Ethnic Composit
Page 55 and 56: Table 8. Summary of Data Pertaining
Page 57 and 58: ut only 89 for methamphetamine, ecs
Page 59 and 60: time. 87 As noted previously, this
Page 61 and 62: Drug delivery arrests continue to b
Page 63 and 64: In sum, many of the arrest patterns
Page 65 and 66: Table 10. Racial Disparity in Drug
Page 68 and 69: PART III: EXPLAINING RACIAL DISPARI
Page 70 and 71: that a higher percentage of whites
Page 72 and 73: After clients had completed their s
Page 74 and 75: Table 13. Racial and Ethnic Composi
Page 76 and 77: whites engaging in the same behavio
Page 78 and 79: Analysis of the patterns found in t
Page 80 and 81: Table 16. Statistical Significance
Page 82 and 83: In sum, the evidence shows that rac
Page 84 and 85: those delivering drugs downtown wer
Page 86 and 87: for delivering a serious drug in Se
Page 88 and 89: to danger, instantaneous addiction
Page 92 and 93: percent of those delivering drugs d
Page 94 and 95: officers made a drug arrest, issued
Page 96 and 97: Figure 18. Geographic Distribution
Page 98 and 99: Figure 20. Geographic Distribution
Page 100 and 101: As these maps illustrate, civilian
Page 102 and 103: and infant health by crack cocaine
Page 104 and 105: Although the crack trade has been a
Page 106: Weapons were more likely to be seiz
Page 109 and 110: supports an alternative explanation
Page 111 and 112: Buckman, Charles, and John Lamberth
Page 113 and 114: Hagedorn, John M. 1994. “Homeboys
Page 115 and 116: Murphy, Sheigla and Dan Waldorf. 19
Page 117 and 118: Ritter, Alison. 2005. A Review of A
Page 119 and 120: United Nations International Drug C
Page 121 and 122: APPENDIX B: UNRELIABLE 9-1-1 CALL E
Page 123 and 124: Complaint: Arrival: Officer Update:
Page 126: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Katherine Beckett
Page 130: THE DEFENDER ASSOCIATION
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