The group said the numbers are especially striking because of federal studies that show white drug users outnumber black drug users 5-to-1. “These racial disparities are a national scandal,” said Ken Roth, executive director of the New York-based human rights group. The study was based on 1996 figures provided by 37 states to the Justice Department. The study doesn’t include data for states that did not report statistics that year. The study did not differentiate between individuals imprisoned for drug dealing as opposed to drug use. Experts at the Bureau of Criminal Justice Statistics, a division of the Justice Department, say one reason for the disparity could be that drug abuse among blacks tends to be more chronic and involve harder drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin.

(Source: abcnews.com; Photo: Chris Cozzone, prisonzone.com)