We hypothesized that neighborhood disadvantage might function as a determinant of'exposure opportunity'an intermediate step on a path toward starting to use drugs illicitly.

Testing this hypothesis, we analyzed self-report data gathered in 1992 by means of confidential interviews with 1416 urban-dwelling middle-school participants in a longitudinal field study.

Within this epidemiologic sample, 50 youths said that someone actively had offered them a chance to take cocaine or smoke crack ; tobacco had been offered to 395 youths ; alcohol to 429 youths.

Using multiple logistic regression to hold constant grade, sex, minority status, and peer drug use, we found a moderately potent association between neighborhood disadvantage and exposure to cocaine : youths living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods (highest tertile) were an estimated 5.6 times more likely to have been offered cocaine, as compared to those in relatively advantaged neighborhoods (P=0.001).