Well, I’m sure it isn’t true for all opiate abusers, but many of them start with prescriptions for legit injuries. And I suspect that those sorts of folks helped it become as widespread as it is now. Regardless, opiates are considered to have some form of legitimate use, where cocaine isn’t, which probably has something to do with the perception you describe. Legit question: is opiate use more predominant among whites? If so, I didn’t know that.
Of all deaths in 2015 from opioid and heroin overdoses nationwide, about 90percent of the people were white.
For 2015, white Tennesseans made up 89.5percent of 839 people treated primarily for heroin and 95percent of 4,071 treated for prescription opioids, according to the department.
Black Tennesseans made up 62percent of 1,176 treated for cocaine or crack and 45percent of 2,065 in treatment for marijuana use.
So guess which drugs we’re focusing on and throwing people in prison for and which drugs the GOP demands money to address and help people with.
Huh. Interesting, thanks.
To be fair, there are other sources with varying numbers, but there is clearly a racial divide based on many of those, sometimes not as extreme. It’s an ugly truth though when you realize why the GOP is demanding money for the opiod problem but kind of just did a war on drugs the years before when it wasn’t their voting block experiencing the problem.
The extra sick part of this problem is it hit one section of my problem. One of my cousin tried to get an illegal prescription filled under my Great Aunt’s name, even managed to get her to go try and pick it up. The pharmacy caught it and the police were waiting. So you have this sixty seven year old woman standing their confused, talking to the police offer, and telling him everything about my cousin whom they wound up arresting after the story came out and yes, he managed to get his hand on a prescription pad. Two pieces of our family are still not talking to each other over this.
How did it end well… well the police believed my great aunt, but she and my cousin are white. If she was my black side and they didn’t believe her. My great aunt could be rotting in jail today if the police officer just let prejudice guide his judgment.
Is there much research on why the divide exists? I have no clue how many opiate abusers started with a legit prescription; is that part of it (which would make sense given how many blacks feel about the medical community still (with good reason). Is it price-related (though I’d imagine both have to be relatively cheap to be widely abused)? Is it more cultural in terms of the type of high?
I’ve always found it interesting that certain drugs are considered acceptable and others not, depending on which society you are in.
That’s a great question. I have no idea. Years ago, before I had any sort of professional career, I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. They gave me 3 or 4 vicodin to take home for the pain. I never take pain pills. Like by the time I reach for Tylenol and ibuprofen it’s been expired in the bottle for a couple of years. The dentist never asked me if I wanted it, so I just took my prescription, got it filled, never used it. The pain wasn’t that bad. When 3 of my family members found out I tossed these drugs, you’d think I’d committed some sort of ultra sin. I was in my 20s and I didn’t really know you’re not supposed to put that in the trash but anyway, all three still take strong pain killers today, two of them I am are convinced are addicted on some level.
One had back surgery, major, another has had health issues for years and no insurance. The third I think is recovered and doesn’t take anything strong anymore, maybe. 2/3 on heavy pain meds for life seems… bad to me. Very small sample, not a statistic but… god. And those 3 do not include the cousin I mention above… I don’t him, but I know my great aunt. And again, all the white side of my family. If this is an issue on the other side, it has never come up… not even during the years we lost a couple of cancer, and as far as I am concerned, people suffering from cancer can take whatever they want to feel better.
Agreed. My dad has recently gotten off of opiates after being on them for over a year because of pain from oral cancer. He hated taking them too, because they made him feel like crap. In their generation, marijuana = bad, but I wonder if he wouldn’t have been more comfortable and had better pain control if that had been available to him and been something he’d have been willing to try. He’s lucky, and tried to take as little as he could, even when he had trouble managing the pain.
I’ve never smoked it or wanted to (hate the smell) but have no problem legalizing it. It will be interesting to see the long-term dui numbers in states like Washington/Colorado, etc.
My sister, otoh, has probably been addicted to most anything you can name at some point.
Uh, yeah, that’s classic addict behavior.
It’s not something I’m used to being around, and they don’t drug seek in the open.
I mean I don’t even know you and I think that is sad.
Then again I’ve got exactly the kind of chronic, crippling back pain that you should never prescribe opioids for (cuz it’s never going to stop and there addiction lies), but I’ve had the reasonably good shit a couple of times after surgeries and it was amazing: the first time in years–decades at this point–that everything just…stopped hurting. I can absolutely see how that shit would be addictive.
I left a Go-Live one hour early once to go see if one of my family members was dead, basically overdosed because a family member told me they left unused pills to help her at her house and she’s an alcoholic and hadn’t answered any calls all day. No one wanted to call the cops because she might have these pills under someone else’s name which is a narcotic. When I got there I couldn’t even take the bottle away, she’d emptied it with a bottle of wine. Thankfully alive when I got there, it was only a few pills but completely incoherent.
So believe me, I got a crash course long after the wisdom teeth incident, but none of these people look or act like drug pushers, except that cousin of mine who would fit right in with the image of a drug users. If it were up to me, the physicians would never be allowed to subscribe pain pills again to any of them except the problem is… aside from the abuse, they have ailments that suggest actual pain.
Not sure what to do when you have someone who experiences long-term pain but is also an addict. Since we have this epidemic, I know we’re not the only ones. Why it’s most whites though… no idea. I guess that means everyone else just deals with the pain or gets arrested for weed.
http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/36074873/here-heroin-spares-no-one-not-even-the-sheriffs-wife
See here is another article which is trying to serve a different purpose, but it still reinforces the idea that when its lower class or black, doesn’t matter… when it hits white suburbia suddenly it’s time to care. It was always time to care.
If memory serves me right (and that’s not guaranteed) during the recent ACA debates the GOP tried to cut funding for people with opiate drug problems.
I’m pretty sure the GOP are equal opportunity when it comes to cutting funds for people who actually need help.
It is a shame, though a better comparison of social reactions would be between, say, meth use in rural white America rather than prescription opiate abuse, which people see as coming from a more legitimate place and easier to fall into.
Not saying it’s right, it’s just the normal human rationalization process so we don’t all go insane thinking about the world’s problems.
I believe it’s actually a disagreement within the GOP.
Adding opioid funding to the bill either has or is close to having the support of 50 Republican senators, these sources say. But their efforts could also be complicated by the Senate’s budget rules. The Senate’s bill must save as much money as the House’s Obamacare repeal legislation did — more than $100 billion — which will make it more difficult for GOP leadership to add new spending to even the scaled-down bill.
I am sure I can find more that discuss it when I have a chance. They were adding it to the Skinny plans to cement the votes of GOP members. They were never going to to get the Dem votes which means some members of the GOP actually care about this specific drug problem.
I think the fact that it wasn’t included to begin with says something. If I remember one of the dissenting women Senators wanted it included as part of her changing her vote.
Rob Portman too. I don’t know what you’re trying to say here. There are GOP voting states that have been hit by this epidemic. The GOP cares about this epidemic because it’s found in white suburbia land which includes the NE. the GOP bargained for opiods to be addressed in the bill in hopes of cementing votes, and I believe they got this. It’s not like it was universal drug help or help for cocaine. None of what you said actually refutes what i am saying. They added it back in because parts of the GOP actually care about those specific drugs and not really any others.
Those are the states primarily hit by it from my understanding.
Well and the Rust Belt, but they mostly voted GOP this time around.
Although the GOP could care less about white rural meth fiends.
I do think there is a certain sympathy however for those who started using pain killers for a needed reason and end up just being a victim of that use. It is kind of a “for the grace of god thing” if you get my drift. I have been subscribed pain killers a few times but I can only remember one time when I used the whole bottle and would have taken more. I probably would have done anything during that period. Thankfully it was resolved after a short period.