• In 2016, drug overdose was the leading cause of death for adults, 18 to 50.
• Every three weeks, deaths from overdose in the U.S. equal the number of Americans killed on 9/11.
• An estimated 2 million plus Americans abuse opioids.
The spectrum of questions these three bullets generate is complex, troubling and, in many cases, unanswerable. For the sake of brevity, the questions we will address include the lack of public awareness about the Opioid Crisis, the absence of media outrage, and the surprising silence from many of the nation’s leaders on the subject.
What is clear, however, is that the response to the Opioid Crisis does not parallel the Federal Government’s reaction to previous drug-fueled epidemics. The common historic thread that emerges is the aggressive prosecution of the dealers providing supply, and the addicts driving demand.
1875. San Francisco. The first anti-drug law in the country is passed, outlawing opium consumption. The law targeted the thriving opium dens that were almost exclusively run by Chinese immigrants. Their clientele, however, included a large number of non-Asians, Civil War vets who had been treated with morphine in battle, where they became addicted.
1914. The Federal Government passed the Harrison Tax Act, taxing and regulating the production, importation and distribution of opium and coca products. The bill was passed after a decade-long campaign of racist arguments targeting Asians, Blacks, and Mexicans as those responsible for the importation and abuse of illegal drugs. A1914 New York Times article written by well-known “expert” physician, Dr. Edward Williams M.D., decries cocaine as the cause of murder and insanity among Southern Blacks, as well as suggests that the drug gave them virtually super-human strength.
Though the Harrison Tax Act did not prohibit the use of opium or cocaine, the enforcement of the law led to punitive prosecution of both seller and buyer.
Since President Reagan launched his “war on drugs”, the racist impact of the war had been the subject of numerous books, papers, and articles. While the context they provided was invaluable, at the heart of the War on Drugs was a politically-driven strategy to subjugate African Americans.
By selectively policing inner-cities, the numbers of arrests and convictions for possession and distribution by racewere exceptionally disproportionate. In addition, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, passed in 1986, included penalties 100 times stricterfor crack cocaine than penalties for powder cocaine, the overwhelming choice of middle and upper-class users. Mass media contributed to the mythology of crack as an inner-city problem with a biased portrayal of the drug being more powerful and harmful than powdered cocaine, which is not the case.
In 2014, The ACLU provided a compelling snapshot of the racial disparity as a result of selective policing and biased sentencing in the drug war over the last four decades. In the ACLU statement, numbers speak for themselves:
"Blacks represent 12% of drug users, but 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for drug offenses.”
“Sentences for Black males are generally nearly 20% longer than those imposed on similarly situated white males, and these disparities increase with the severity of the sentence.”
With race playing such a fundamental role in the War on Drugs, the lack of outrage over the current Opioid Crisis becomes easier to understand. To put it simply, opioid abuse is overwhelmingly a white problem, as shown in the charting of the Henry J. Kraft Family Foundation’s data.
Adding to the challenge of the crisis, is the atypical victimology. In addition to being an over whelmingly white crisis, the age group with the highest increase in overdose deaths in 2015, were adults aged 55 to 64.
As the Opioid Crisis has grown, so has the media attention it is receiving. Better late than never, it is now receiving extensive coverage across virtually all mainstream media outlets. During the 2016 election, Trump frequently justified his Wall, blaming Mexican drug lords for the crisis.In March of 2017, through an Executive Order, the President established the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, led by Chris Christie.
In early August, at the recommendation of the Commission, the President announcedthat the Opioid Crisis was a “national emergency”. Since then, however, the White House has nothingto show beyond the declaration. The President has not issued an official executive order, announced a strategy, or allocated resources to address the emergency.
The reason for the lack of response may be the President’s inability to understand the dynamics of the Opioid Crisis. Since his days as a candidate, the President has repeatedly blamed China and Mexico for drug problems in the United States. The fact is, the Opioid Crisis is homegrown, spurred on by physicians prescribing opioids with growing frequency.
Furthermore, is the anti-science perspective that the President embraces by refusing to acknowledge that addiction is a disease. The President seems to believe that those who are addicted are unlikely to be rehabilitated and, like dealers, should be treated as criminals.In August, speaking on the crisis, Trump, with wife Melania at his side,remarked, “The best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place…”. In short, “just say no” for a new millennium.
The President’s uninformed perspective is at odds with the Commission’s own recommendations in the interim report, calling upon the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take larger roles in the crisis, both of whom have had their proposed budgets slashed by the President. In addition, the Commission’s report calls upon broadening Medicaid definitions of in-patient facilities treatment, which flies against the GOP proposed gutting of the program.
Each day, 142 Americans will overdose and die. Like most of the challenges facing the country, the Presdient’s response has little connection to the reality of the challenge, and is instead steeped in policies that have been tried and failed. Perhaps one of the most fascinating questions looking ahead is, how aggressive will the President be in criminalizing the Opioid Crisis’ victims when an overwhelming majority of the them look like him?
Political Journalist - Washington DC