ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2015
Powder cocaine and crack use in the United States: an examination of risk for arrest and socioeconomic disparities in use.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 107 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of pharmacological interventions for the treatment of cocaine use disorder: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- All-cause and cause-specific mortality among people with regular or problematic cocaine use: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Pooled it
- Initiating methadone in jail and in the community: Patient differences and implications of methadone treatment for reducing arrests.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2019Trial
- Rationale, design and methods of theBMJ open · 2026Article
- Trauma Profiles and Cocaine Use Among Formerly Incarcerated Black Men Who Co-Use Opioids and Stimulants.The Journal of black psychology · 2026Article
- Higher drug overdose mortality among non-hispanic black adults aged 55 and older in the U.S.: Analysis of national death records from CDC's WONDER database (1999-2023).Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Cannabis Use, Disorders, and Disparities Under the Controlled Substances Act: NSDUH 2015-2019.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Criminal Justice, Arrests Data, and Structural Racism Measurement for Health Equity Research: Promises and Pitfalls.Health services research · 2025Article
- Characterizing and responding to stimulant overdoses: Findings from a mixed methods study of people who use cocaine and other stimulants in New England.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Enhancing translation: A need to leverage complex preclinical models of addictive drugs to accelerate substance use treatment options.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2024Review
- Risk and Protective Factors for Firearm Assault Injuries Among Black Men: A Scoping Review of Research.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2024Article
- A Network Science Approach to Sex-Polydrug Use Among Black Sexually Minoritized Men and Transgender Women: The N2 Cohort Study.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2024Article
- Gender differences in the prevalence of stimulant misuse in the United States: 2015-2019.The American journal on addictions · 2024Article
- Racial, Ethnic, and Regional Disparities in Cocaine-Involved Overdose Deaths in the US, 1999-2020.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2024Article
- Housing Instability Associated with Return to Stimulant Use among Previously Abstaining Women.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Revisiting "Excited Delirium": Does the Diagnosis Reflect and Promote Racial Bias?The western journal of emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Early Lifetime Substance Use and Development of Visual Impairment: Analysis of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health Data.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities and Black/White disparities in US cocaine-involved overdose mortality risk.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Article
- Vital Signs: Drug Overdose Deaths, by Selected Sociodemographic and Social Determinants of Health Characteristics - 25 States and the District of Columbia, 2019-2020.MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn light of the current sentencing disparity (18:1) between crack and powder cocaine possession in the United States, we examined socioeconomic correlates of use of each, and relations between use and arrest, to determine who may be at highest risk for arrest and imprisonment.
methodsWe conducted secondary data analyses on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2009-2012. Data were analyzed for adults age ≥ 18 to determine associations between use and arrest. Socioeconomic correlates of lifetime and annual use of powder cocaine and of crack were delineated using multivariable logistic regression and correlates of frequency of recent use were examined using generalized negative binomial regression.
resultsCrack users were at higher risk than powder cocaine users for reporting a lifetime arrest or multiple recent arrests. Racial minorities were at low risk for powder cocaine use and Hispanics were at low risk for crack use. Blacks were at increased risk for lifetime and recent crack use, but not when controlling for other socioeconomic variables. However, blacks who did use either powder cocaine or crack tended to use at higher frequencies. Higher education and higher family income were negatively associated with crack use although these factors were sometimes risk factors for powder cocaine use.
conclusionsCrack users are at higher risk of arrest and tend to be of lower socioeconomic status compared to powder cocaine users. These findings can inform US Congress as they review bills (e.g., The Smarter Sentencing Act), which would help eliminate cocaine-related sentencing disparities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.