These skyrocketing arrest figures would seem to reflect a national increase in drug use. But in fact, standard drug surveys indicate that between 1979 and 1990, the percentage of the population that reported “using drugs in the past month” dropped from 14.1% to 6.7%, falling to 6.1% by 1995, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in its preliminary results from the 1996 Household Survey on Drug Abuse, July 1997. Chart source: FBI data provided to Mark Mauer, Race to Incarcerate, The Sentencing Project, New Press, 1999.

This article appears in November 5 • 1999.

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