Use of Cocaine by Ethnic Group, and Does Australia Exist? The Jury is Still Out

Avedon Carol points to cernig who points to an ABC news story that doesn’t match what we all know is true because we’ve been told over and over and over again. I know I was surprised to read this:

Non-Hispanic whites had a higher percentage of ever using cocaine or street drugs (23.5 percent) than blacks (18 percent) or Mexican-Americans (16 percent).

Data might be skewed a bit by this:

The survey, formally titled the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, did not include the homeless, prisons inmates or other institutionalized adults.

Still, I don’t think this skews the data enough to fit with the preconceptions I’ve developed over the years.

So what does one do when one sees information that doesn’t match one’s prior world view? Well, one can disregard it completley – my favorite example is still this. Or one can change one’s mind. Or, if one is a skeptic, one can change one’s mind as a preliminary position, and hope to find more information that confirms what is going on one way or the other.

Anyone have any more information?