One consistent theme within public debates on drug misuse is its association with minority ethnic groups. It is, nevertheless, a peculiar feature of the British drug scene that members of black and other minority groups have been significantly underrepresented among known populations of problem drug users. This despite clear evidence since the early 1980s of a concentration of the most serious drug-related problems in areas of high unemployment and social deprivation, and that ethnic minorities in Britain experience a high degree of social exclusion in terms of poverty, housing deprivation, educational disadvantage, and discrimination in the labor force. A possible explanation is that drug users from Britain's black communities are more likely to remain unknown to service agencies, reflecting other aspects of disadvantage in access to health care. Tables, notes, references