Perinatal substance exposures in california

To the Editor: In the Special Article “Prevalence and Magnitude of Perinatal Substance Exposures in California” (Sept. 16 issue), Vega et al. report an unusually high prevalence of illicit drug and alcohol use among black women as compared with women of other racial groups¹. This finding is surprising. Other large studies have not described such significant interracial differences. Anonymous urine toxicology studies by Chasnoff et al.² and Vaughn et al.³ found positive results with equal frequency in black and in white women. A statewide study of illicit drug use among pregnant women in labor in Rhode Island⁴ reported a.