ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a description of the available data sets concerning drug use generally and discusses trends in drug problems over the past several decades, since drug use in the welfare population is not isolated from the broader changes. Welfare rolls and illicit drugs are connected in at least two ways. First, drug use can serve as a barrier to exit from welfare by reducing the ability to find and retain a job. Second, welfare recipiency of the mother can affect drug use among the children, through any of a number of mechanisms. Of potential interest is a relatively new data set called Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring, which contains data on biological assays for drug use in a sample of arrestees in about thirty-five counties. If one looks beyond drug use in the general population, which captures mostly occasional use of less dangerous drugs, the indicators tell a different story.
