STEREOTYPING:

Anything to suggest attitudes and practices have changed since a 1990 study in Florida? Anonymous urine screening for illicit drugs was performed on 715 pregnant women, roughly half in a public clinic and half seen in private physician offices. The frequency of positive urine results was essentially the same for whites and blacks (15.4% and 14.1%). During the time period of the survey, however, reports to health authorities for "substance abuse during pregnancy" were ten times greater for blacks than for whites, "and poor women were more likely than others to be reported." (Chasnoff et al. NEJM 322(17):1202-1206, 1990)