Theories of the ghetto underclass have been used to explain the concentration of drug sales and addiction in minority communities. This article develops the idea that although deindustrialization and racial and class segregation enhance the tendency for minority group members to use and sell drugs, the historical tendency for these markets to be localized in poor inner- city neighborhoods in the first place is of primary significance. The author suggests that policymakers considering the legalization of illicit drugs take a public health attitude toward drug abuse, by addressing the myriad health and welfare problems in communities where drug use and sales have proliferated over the past century. 1 figure and 34 references