Class Exercise: Drug War Facts

ENG 101: Race and Culture – Justin Rogers-Cooper

Directions: First read the following directions. Then examine the data below, making notes where useful. Finally, write a response that summarizes, interprets, and connects the information in the data.

-          Summary/summarizing: explains the information for a reader who has not seen it yet.

·         hint: be sure to address what the information says as well as how it measures and presents its data.

·         does the data communicate any pattern, trend, or story?

-           Interpret/interpreting: explains the information for a reader wondering what it means.

·         hint: interpretation requires that you explain the significance of something: why is this data important? Who should care about it?

·         Can you imagine reasons that would explain any pattern, trend, or story in the data?

-          Connect/connecting: explains the data’s links to an idea, issue, or claim from class or course text.

·         hint: return to your class notes or class text, and explain the significance of the data for the idea, issue, or claim you choose. 

(if you have time…)

-          Critique/critiquing: explains the data for what’s missing, unclear, or inaccurate.

·         hint: is there a problem in the way this data presents its information, methods, or sources?

DRUG WAR FACTS

a. For more than 4 in 10 convicted murderers being held either in jail or in state prison, alcohol use is reported to have been a factor in the crime. Nearly half of those convicted of assault and sentenced to probation had been drinking when the offense occurred.
Alcohol and Crime: An Analysis of National Data

b. Overall, we estimate that illicit drug use resulted in approximately 17,000 deaths in 2000.
"Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association.

Approximately 32,000 hospitalized patients (and possibly as many as 106,000) in the USA die each year because of adverse reactions to their prescribed medications.
"Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients," JAMA.

c. Most illicit drug users are white. There were an estimated 9.9 million whites (72% of all users), 2.0 million blacks (15%), and 1.4 million Hispanics (10%) who were illicit drug users in 1998.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

In 2001, the chances of going to prison were highest among black males (32.2%) and Hispanic males (17.2%) and lowest among white males (5.9%).
"Prevalence of Imprisonment in the US Population, 1974-2001).

All of these facts come from Drug War Facts, 6th edition. www.drugwarfacts.org