As seen in the NYTimes, Charles M. Blow (hee hee) reports on the results of “Monitoring the Future,” a government-sponsored study by the University of Michigan. Overall illicit drug use, not including painkillers, is down by 24%. Use of cocaine, however, has held steady.

Blow notes, “According to the most recent data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, admissions of white teenagers to drug treatment centers for crack and cocaine abuse soared 76 percent from 2001 to 2006. Crack and cocaine was the only illicit drug category in which the number of admissions for white teens grew over this period, and in 2006 the number was at its highest level since these data have been kept. By contrast, admissions among black teens for crack and cocaine over the same period held steady. By 2006, white admissions outnumbered those for blacks by more than 10 to 1.”

We can only wonder where these young, black crack and cocaine users are going while their white counterparts are sent off to rehab.

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5. Today in Blackness: This is Awkward