There has been increasing concern that current addiction services have not been effective in meeting the needs of patients from ethnic minorities. The Home Office Briefing Delivering Drug Services to Black and Ethnic-Minority Communities (Sangster et al, 2002) highlighted this problem, stating that existing services appear more equipped to cater for the needs of the White population, citing strong evidence that Black and minority ethnic groups are underrepresented in addiction services. These problems were also acknowledged by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (2002), an organisation set up by the government in 2001 to improve drug treatments in the UK. This agency, having identified diversity as a key objective, recognised that significant sections of the population seemed to be excluded from treatment.

Before 2001, few high-impact peer-reviewed publications addressed the relationship between ethnicity and illicit drug use. Notably, as recently as 1995, the government strategy document Tackling Drugs Together (Department of Health, 1995) made no mention of ethnicity at all. A review of drug treatment services in England published in the following year did discuss ethnicity, but it concluded that there was insufficient evidence to judge whether patients from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds find drug treatment agencies less accessible than the rest of the drug-using population (Task Force to Review Services for Drug Misusers, 1996).