In the past few years the number of drug overdose deaths has skyrocketed to an average of 174 deaths per day — largely due to opioid use. Because of the staggering number of opioid-related deaths, which affects Caucasians at a higher rate than other ethnicities, the amount of attention the crisis has received is unprecedented. This is a positive step forward.
However, the focus on opioids excludes the majority of individuals struggling with substance use disorder.
Historically, this is on-trend for the United States. We’ve always been a country focused on the “drug du jour” rather than the disease of addiction itself. From the height of the Prohibition Era in the 1920s to the crack epidemic of the 1980s and the meth epidemic of the early 2000s, media coverage of addiction has almost always centered on the substance of use.
While two-thirds of drug overdose deaths are related to opioids (an average 115 per day), the remainder are deaths caused by cocaine, methamphetamines, and benzodiazepines. In fact, recent studies have shown an overall increase in cocaine and methamphetamine use. And while many say the opioid epidemic has been the solely the result of prescription opioids, today more than 30 percent of those with opioid use disorder begin with heroin.
Furthermore alcohol is still, overwhelmingly so, the deadliest substance of use in the United States.
An average of 241 Americans die each day from alcohol use — more than double the 115 Americans that die from opioid use. So if we focus on programs or ‘reparations’ for those impacted by opioid use — what happens to the many others who struggle with other substances?
They are left out.
A great many people place the blame entirely on the pharmaceutical industry, negating the roles that other industries, bad policies, lack of medical school education and investment toward long-term prevention have played in this crisis. If we want to help those struggling with substance use, we must advocate and support programs for all, not for some.
Lastly the focus on opioids not only removes those most affected by addiction from being a part of the solution, it is a stunning exclusion of minorities. Deaths from cocaine, alcohol and other substances devastate communities of color more than opioids. It is segregation by substance.
We can do better.
