Whenever there is a disparate social response to a problem that afflicts one group of people relative to a problem that afflicts another, it is worth asking why. Such questions are not asked to imply that no one should get help, nor to imply that the current group should not be helped. Rather, we ask them to urge that in the future all persons get help and to understand the social forces that result in such disparities.
When it comes to treating addiction as a public health problem, the disparities in question are health disparities. PBS NewsHour in the US recently ran a short piece on the disparities in how crack cocaine abuse was treated when it largely affected African-American communities, and how opioid abuse is being treated now that it is heavily affecting white communities. As the introduction to this piece says.
Faced with a rising national wave of opioid addiction and its consequences, families, law enforcement and political leaders around the nation are linking arms to save souls. But 30 years ago, it was a different story. Ekow Yankah, a Cardozo School of Law professor, reflects on how race affects our national response to drug abuse.
Historically, drug abuse in the US has been criminalized. Now, we see a much-needed flourishing of drug courts which specifically are empowered to offer rehabilitation and treatment instead of jail time. As the Kaiser Family Foundation has noted in this handy chart with data from the Centers for Disease Control, most deaths from opioid overdose are now amongst white Americans (in the US, whiteness often is taken to include hispanic/latinx persons, though this chart separates them out).
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What bearing does this have on why the public health and political responses to drug use in these two communities has been so different? Check out the PBS NewsHour video for more (transcript is available at the link).
