An evaluation of patterns of racial bias in hair assays for cocaine: black and white arrestees compared.

This article evaluates the hypothesis that hair assays for cocaine will evidence a racial bias. It compares the outcome of hair and urinalysis assays for cocaine metabolites in a group of white and a group of black arrestees in Pinellas County, Florida on whom detailed self-reported drug use is known. The findings indicate that although blacks test at higher positive rates than whites for both hair and urine assays, these differential most likely reflect differential rates of use of cocaine which is apparent from the self-reported data.