Study Finds High Drug Use Rates For Kids Who Were Jailed
A study has found high rates of drug and alcohol abuse and dependency among some who went through Cook County's juvenile detention center.
Cook County Juvenile Detention Center
The Northwestern Medicine study published Thursday found more than 90 percent of males and nearly 80 percent of females in the study were diagnosed with a "substance abuse disorder'' at some point in their lives.
The Chicago Tribune reports the study looked at 1,829 youths detained between 1995 and 1998 at the county's Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago, and followed up with them at least nine times in 12 years. The study also found that African-Americans were less likely to have cocaine-use disorders than non-Hispanic white youths, who were 30 times more likely to abuse cocaine. Hispanic youths were 20 times more likely to use cocaine than African-Americans.