The US Opioid Epidemic
From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
The US
“Drug
overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US
It’s been about three years since I
wrote something on the opioid epidemic ravaging this nation. It first came to
my attention about when I was preparing to be a guest on a radio program to
discuss the riots in Baltimore following the
Freddie Gray death at the hands of the Baltimore
police. I was researching some
demographics about the drug use in Baltimore
when I saw an article stating the newest demographic for heroine and opiate
addiction were white women and whites between the ages of 25-53. Unlike inner
city addition these new addicts were mostly rural whites. I discovered whites
in rural Maryland
were experiencing a huge spike in overdoes and death so much so, Maryland State
Police were carrying the drug Naloxone to prevent overdoses.
Subsequently I started noticing
similar reports in states like Vermont , Ohio and West
Virginia and I realized the opioid epidemic’s main
victims were white folks. Today the overdose epidemic is so pervasive you
routinely hear public service announcements on local and national radio and
television stating addiction is a disease that help is available. When opium,
heroine and alcohol were being dumped in the barrios, Indian reservations and
ghetto communities in the 50’s, ‘60’s 70’s 80’s, 90’s, into the twenty-first
century nothing like this was said.
Now that escalating numbers of white people
are getting strung out and dying, drug addiction is a public health crisis, not
a judgment on the morality and worth of the addicts like it was when the CIA
and Mafia were dumping drugs in our communities! But it was the Black and Brown
users not the white users or importers who were targeted for arrest and
incarceration under a totally bogus “War on Drugs”. Now that whites are the majority being strung
out the official mantra is, “we can’t arrest our way out of this problem.” What
a difference pigment makes in the way policies are made and monies
appropriated.
When I
spoke on the radio program about Baltimore
I provided relevant historic background. I noted the Karmic irony that Baltimore was a bustling port city that was the port of
export for tobacco, an extremely addictive substance back to Europe
in the eighteenth century. Baltimore
was also an entry point for kidnapped Africans who were herded into and held in
pens on Pratt Street
until they could be sold and shipped elsewhere.
Later Baltimore
became an entry port for European immigrants coming from traumatized background
situations created by European elites in Ireland
and Germany .
This mix of traumatized persons led to racial animus,
conflict and state sanctioned repression especially of Blacks. I talked about
the devastating impact of deindustrialization on the region, the scourge of illicit
drugs like heroine and crack cocaine had on Baltimore
but that now Mexican opium and opioid pain killers were on the rise in the
suburbs and wrecking havoc in the rural areas of Maryland . I pointed out this was not being covered by the corporate
media.
Since then
I’ve causally followed the rise of opioid addiction and overdoses but paid
close attention to the different public policy pronouncements and priorities
now that whites are succumbing to heroine and opiate drugs. The US is
experiencing a real crisis and public health officials, politicians and sociologists
are extremely concerned because of the rising addiction, overdose and death
rates.
Overzealous prescription writing by doctors,
imploding socio-economic conditions and the profit motive are fueling a
devastating increase in death and bondage to synthetic opioids and
heroine. “The rate of heroin-related
overdose deaths nationwide has nearly quadrupled since 2002. An estimated
30,000 people die every year from opioid overdoses. But unlike drug epidemics
of the past, minority populations have seen a less dramatic increase in drug
addiction and deaths compared to young white adults. The rate of heroin use
among white adults increased by 114% between 2004 and 2013, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate among nonwhite adults
remained relatively unchanged during that same period…The stark rise in
addiction can be traced back to the increased use of prescription pain
relievers such as OxyContin and Vicodin. Prescriptions for opioid analgesic
medications have skyrocketed since the introduction of OxyContin in the
mid-1990s. In 2012, the number of prescriptions written for opioid drugs
reached 259 million. Regulators only a few years ago began implementing
stricter limits on the number of pain pills doctors could prescribe, which
resulted in lower prescribing rates for opioids, but also led to a subsequent
rise in heroin use, a cheaper and easier alternative to prescription pain
medicines.” The racial divide in the opioid epidemic. Steven Ross Johnson http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20160227/MAGAZINE/302279871.
Public health officials are
concerned about the causes and outcomes of the epidemic. Overdoses are at an
all time high. “Opioid prescribing continues to fuel the epidemic. Today, 40%
of all U.S.
opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid. In 2016, more than
46 people died every day from overdoses involving prescription opioids… Overdose
is not the only risk related to prescription opioids. Misuse, abuse, and opioid
use disorder (addiction) are also potential dangers. In 2014, almost 2 million
Americans abused or were dependent on prescription opioids. As many as 1 in 4
people who receive prescription opioids long term for non-cancer pain in
primary care settings struggles with addiction. Every day, over
1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription
opioids.” https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html
Go to https://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/opioid-addiction-disease-facts-figures.pdf
to see a comprehensive report on opioid addiction.
It is unlikely the social
conditions fueling the personal and collective depression, despondency,
helplessness, alienation and pain will abate any time soon. As a people we have
to call upon the resiliency of our ancestors and tap into the well of energy
within ourselves and use our imagination to vision and fashion a lives,
environment and world worthy of our innate and intrinsic genius and being.
Greater is that which is inside us than that which is in the world.
-30-
posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 10:04 AM
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