[phaus]

>Black Americans have watched a completely different and profoundly more compassionate response to the white people affected by the opioid epidemic than they experienced in the crack/cocaine epidemic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crack-h....

https://thewitnessbcc.com/crack-epidemic-opioid-crisis-race-....

Great post and you brought up a few things I hadn't considered. Just curious about this one though. America in general has gradually shifted towards a view that drug addicts are sick people that need help. The shift was already taking place before opioids and methamphetamine addiction reached epidemic levels. How much of an impact do you think systemic racism had on the response to the opioid epidemic and how much can just be attributed to the fact that we have gotten smarter about drug addiction in general?

I'm not super educated on the opioid epidemic, but is there evidence that even now the resources allocated for a response are being distributed unfairly?

[taurath]

> How much of an impact do you think systemic racism had on the response to the opioid epidemic and how much can just be attributed to the fact that we have gotten smarter about drug addiction in general?

Most of society now empathizes with drug addiction because its hit white society a lot and the race of users can't be used as a political scapegoat. As long as you're white, the richer you are, the less likely you are to go to jail for it. Rehab is for rich people.

We haven't gotten smarter about drug addiction in general, which is why we have the largest prison population in the world.

> is there evidence that even now the resources allocated for a response are being distributed unfairly?

Given a huge percentage of the "response" is police and prisons, and police and prisons dramatically discriminate against people by race, yes.

[phaus]

>We haven't gotten smarter about drug addiction in general, which is why we have the largest prison population in the world.

Legalization and decriminalization of Marijuana is still a relatively recent phenomenon. It seems to me like it will eventually get legalized by the federal government. If that happens, wouldn't we expect this to get better? The right thing to do would be to release everyone that was in jailed on marijuana related charges as long as they weren't also convicted of something more serious (like violence). Maybe I'm being too optimistic.

I think a lot of Americans realize how insane it is that we jail more people than any other country. While progress is always slow, it seems like we're hearing more politicians talk about doing something about it.

[taurath]

While its true drugs won the war on drugs, that doesn't mean the racist and political underpinnings of keeping people locked up for nonviolent drug offences go away overnight. Actual real police reform and breaking the prison-industrial complex is a big goal of the current protests, but once again its conservatives with their decades of fear who are holding up progress.

[pbhjpbhj]

>As long as you're white, the richer you are, the less likely you are to go to jail for it. Rehab is for rich people. //

Any sources to support this, that equally wealthy people go to jail in higher proportions - for the same [drug] crime - if they're non-white?

[taurath]

I couldn't find one for drugs specifically, but this link is a decent one:

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/02/the-race-g...

The probability of being jailed for more than a year is over 20% for the poorest 20% of Blacks, and just over 10% for the poorest 20% of whites.

[pbhjpbhj]

Thanks, but your accompanying paragraph is not what I asked for. Yes, it's a problem if people's skin colour is affecting their ability to earn - so there being a racial factor to wealth is an issue. But it's a separate issue to "is it 'just' that justice is reserved for richer people".

Obviously the impact of the later is felt more if a particular grouping by skin colour are poorer, but the problem and solution are different to if the cause of this is directly racism (assuming our aim is justice for all regardless of skin colour; that's certainly my aim).

I'm not personally too concerned with complete wealth equality (I'd probably go for heavily garnishing large wages). For example, in the UK I gather immigrants contribute more to taxes than the average; suggesting they fit in middle-income brackets (not super wealthy, not abjectly poor; on average). Penalising immigrants for succeeding would be harsh, and wouldn't account for the massive biasing of averages for the endemic population through inherited wealth.

[pbhjpbhj]

From that link:

>He concludes, “[T]hese disparities are primarily driven by our racialized class system. Therefore, the most effective criminal justice reform may be an egalitarian economic program aimed at flattening the material differences between the classes.” In other words, while building a more progressive economy won’t end the horrors of racism, it may be the pathway to a less discriminatory criminal justice system. //

That appears to closely match my position.

[taurath]

I don't think I'm disagreeing here. Economic justice would go a long way. Still though, for the time being a black person is absolutely going to be profiled and have more police contact, and even if they have a lot of money. People don't stop doing that overnight. Its a cultural thing.

[jimbokun]

> America in general has gradually shifted towards a view that drug addicts are sick people that need help.

Just a coincidence that this shift happened as more white people started suffering from such addictions?

[catalogia]

It probably has more to do with the internet facilitating the dissemination of information that ran counter to the governments' anti-drug propaganda.