Getting Busted

In 2000, most of the people arrested by the Chicago Police Department for drug offenses were African American. But blacks made up lesser shares of the area’s drug treatment clients, drug-related deaths and drug-related emergency room visits.



Notes: Treatment figures include clients admitted in 2000 to 134 state-supported drug and alcohol treatment centers in Cook County. Figures for drug-related deaths are based on 1999 medical examiner reports, the most recent available, for Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties. Figures for emergency room visits are based on 2000 estimates of 24-hour emergency room visits in Cook, DuPage and McHenry counties. All percentages are of the total cases in which the race was known.
Sources: Chicago Police Department, Illinois Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, and Drug Abuse Warning Network; analyzed by The Chicago Reporter.