Race/ethnicity, illicit drug use, and HIV/AIDS in the United States: Results from a triangulation of public use data sets in 2010

Background: African American injection drug users (IDUs) are more likely to become infected with HIV compared to White IDUs. Recent research suggests that the intersection of drug use and incarceration is partially responsible for these racial disparities. However, previous research has shown that African Americans, compared to Whites, are less likely to use illicit drugs given similar social environments. Methods: Triangulation of publicly available datasets offers the opportunity to investigate relationships between drug-related arrests, illicit drug use, and race/ethnicity. These datasets include the General Social Survey, United States Census, and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCRP). Any illicit drug use is measured as a dichotomous variable of any lifetime injection drug use and/or any crack use. Chi-square test of independence is used to identify significant bivariate associations at an alpha level of 0.05. Results: Generalizable results from the General Social Survey show no significant difference between any illicit drug use among African Americans compared to Whites (6.4% vs. 7.5%). Alternatively, results from the UCRP show the rate of arrests for drug abuse violations among African Americans is 1,040 per 100,000 compared to 378 per 100,000 among Whites. Conclusions: Findings show that although African Americans do not use illicit drugs more than Whites, they are arrested for drug abuse violations at a higher rate. The triangulation of data in this analysis generates new questions about the role of the social environment, including policing strategies to curtail the public sale of drug use, in shaping the HIV epidemic in African American communities.