Historically, more black women using drugs during pregnancy have been arrested, despite higher rates of whites using the illegal substances. This higher rate of arrest is due to which societal issue?

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When literature first began to examine the impact of illicit substances on newborns, the women arrested in delivery rooms and charged with endangering their infants were almost exclusively poor and black crack users, despite the prevalence of white, pregnant powder cocaine users at the time (Acker, 2010, p. 84). Likewise, "longer sentences for crack possession compared to equivalent weights of powder cocaine contributed to disproportionate levels of African Americans incarcerated for drug convictions (Currie, 1993). These periods of incarceration, in turn, further reduced young black men's engagement in education or legitimate employment and deepened their criminal involvement" (p. 84). Such policies not only increased the direct harms associated with drug use (e.g., incarceration, financial impacts) but also further increased risk factors by imposing barriers to meaningful and efficacious participation in life. Highlighting the relevance of race in discussions of addiction and health, Krieger (2014) emphasizes: "An important gap in current research concerns the racialized health consequences of contemporary legal discrimination such as the legally color-blind, albeit racially motivated, U.S. War on Drugs and its role in producing or exacerbating health-debilitating racial/ethnic inequalities" (p. 688).

Historically, More Black Women Using Drugs During Pregnancy Have Been