It all started with this video from Vice about the opioid epidemic in my Facebook feed and longtime readers will note that this is where I get my good stuff from. You see, I spent part of my childhood deep in Appalachia and went on to spend another decade in Washington, DC. I am not just throwing something at the dart board here. I know what I’m talking about.
I know exactly who is being hit by the opioid crisis. I knew exactly who was being hit by the crack epidemic 20 years ago. And yes, I’m going to point out right here that reactions from the rest of the country were wildly different. Crack was criminalized and politicians of all stripes demonized inner city youth as a danger to society. Opioid addicts are seen as tragic and forgiveable folks who either fell on hard times or victim to Big Pharma.
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I grew up pretty evenly situated in the middle of the coal fields of southern West Virginia. (the first person to mention John Denver gets flagged!) That is to say that the city I grew up in was there because the rail lines from the coal mines all led there before moving on to the Kanawha River and up to Pittsburgh, among other places. So I am familiar with pretty much every remnant of a coal camp in half the state and I know people actually still living in several.
Anyway, one of the towns in the region is named Oceana. (for reasons passing understanding) There is neither lake nor ocean anywhere near. There is a river though, which made it a good place to rip coal out the mountains and ship it upstream. Oceana was rocked by the opioid epidemic. First, we are talking about an area where many experience physical injury as part of work. Second, we are talking people with an, almost, pathological unwillingness to admit pain or hardship.
West Virginia coal miners are an odd band. They sure as hell took to Oxycodone quickly. It allowed them to both feel less pain and nod off into a sense of the drug’s false sense of security and happiness. And it hooked most of them and/or led to other, more dangerous things and behaviors.
And that’s where a nation took notice. Those poor hard working, struggling, out of work (White) people. They needed help. They were beset by an onslaught of pharmaceutical addiction that washed over them from outside their communities. They needed to be helped. And understood.
i did have a video here but decided to delete on second read
And then there’s the crack epidemic of the 90’s. Same situation almost entirely.
Those poor hard working, struggling, out of work (Black) people. They needed help. They were beset by an onslaught of pharmaceutical addiction that washed over them from outside their communities. They needed to be helped incarcerated. And understood kept away from the rest of society. The reactions to the situations were polar opposites.
I want to make absolutely sure at this point that you know I am not saying that Appalachians, or any other person, hooked on prescription and other street drugs should be jailed. I think that they need help and I want to see them receive it. I just want us to acknowledge that we created the War on Drugs in response to the same problem in poor and Black communities.
That’s really all I have to say. I damn sure shouldn’t have to say more. This should be how we all feel.
Good night.
- John
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