COLOR OF DRUG ABUSE ISN'T SOLELY BLACK

Talking with Tom Hedrick made me realize that racism and stereotypes have a
costly consequence for white people, too.

Discrimination in housing, jobs, education, wages, promotions, public
accommodations, investments and opportunities take a toll on minorities.
But Hedrick said white people and their children paid dearly for this
country's historical problems with race, too.

Hedrick is vice chairman of the Partnership for a Drug Free America. He met
with The Kansas City Star's Editorial Board in June. He and I talked again
recently because the costly disease of racism helps perpetuate the drug
problem in America.

Hedrick said the public perception is that the face of drug dealers and
drug users in the United States is black. "The truth is African- American
youths proportionately use fewer illicit drugs, use less alcohol and fewer
smoke cigarettes," Hedrick said.

That has been his hypothesis for about 15 years. But he also mailed me a
couple of studies supporting his beliefs. One was a December report from
the University of Michigan.

That report found smoking rates among black teens to be "considerably lower
than among their white and Hispanic counterparts." Among 12th- graders,
14.3 percent of African-Americans said they had smoked cigarettes in a
30-day period compared with 37.9 percent of whites and 27.7 percent of
Hispanics.

Only 1.5 percent of black high school seniors said they had used smokeless
tobacco compared with 10.5 percent of whites and 3.8 percent of Hispanics.

Hedrick also sent me the 1-inch thick National Institute on Drug Abuse
report titled, "Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use,
1975-1999.

It said: "African-American seniors have consistently shown lower usage
rates on most drugs, licit and illicit, than white seniors; this also is
true at the lower grade levels where little dropping out of school has yet
occurred."

The study found that in a 30-day period, 20 percent of African- American
12th-graders used an illicit drug compared with 27 percent for whites and
24.4 percent for Hispanics. The report said 32.2 percent of black high
school seniors used alcohol in that 30 days compared with 56.3 percent of
whites and 50.2 percent Hispanics.

"In 12th grade, occasions of heavy drinking are much less likely to be
reported by African-American students (12 percent) than by white students
(36 percent) or Hispanic students (29 percent)," the study said.

The public, however, seems to prefer stereotypes to the truth the studies
reveal about America's drug problem. That has deadly consequences for many
of our children.

Hedrick said: "It lets those parents, particularly white parents who live
in the suburbs, continue to engage in their own particular form of denial:
It doesn't happen to their youth. It happens to someone else's child."

White suburban parents assume incorrectly that they're off the hook in
needing to have a conversation about drugs with their children.

"The more likely parents are in denial, the more likely the child is to
engage in the problem," Hedrick said. "I think it has dangerous
implications down the road."

Tracey Blaylock, executive director of COMBAT, Community Backed Anti- Drug
Tax in Jackson County, which finances many treatment programs, blames the
news and entertainment media for putting a black, inner- city face on
America's drug problem. "I think there's too much emphasis on negative
issues with African-Americans," she said.

Drugs are used by the rich, the middle-class, the poor and people in urban,
rural and suburban America. "It's a problem in our community that affects
all people," Blaylock said.

Hedrick wants to awaken parents and adults of all races to that fact so
they'll start to have meaningful anti-drug conversations with young people.
There should be talks in which adults say, "Don't do drugs because I love
you," rather than, "if you do drugs, I'll break your neck."

Perhaps one side effect of the public thinking the drug problem has a black
face is it has compelled African-American parents and mentors to have that
anti-drug conversation with children with positive, measurable outcomes.

"We know that children who do have the conversations are much less likely
to use," Hedrick said. "The rates are lower so they must be having the
conversation with somebody."

Maybe holding up a mirror so people can see the truth about drugs will help
everyone also realize the high price stereotypes and racism continue to
make everyone pay.