Good points all.
But, at least now that it is impacting white people there is attention being
paid to this and for reforms. It is interesting to note that criminal law
enforcement reforms and expanded treatment is a very big issue in New
Hampshire. It is a big issue in the presidential campaign. The opiate
addiction rate including heroin addiction is a huge problem in mostly white
New England towns.
I've seen Massachusetts towns for example where local law enforcement has
essentially decrimanalized the issue. Sherriff offices have opened their
doors to addicts seeking recovery and are interfacing with treatment and
other supports.
But again your point on the color divide of this issue is most well taken.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2016 6:36 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Federal Drug Policy Softens as Whites Become
Face of Heroin Addiction
Abby,
There's a book on BARD, Chasing The Scream by Johan Hari, which, I think,
has excellent answers to the problem. You might want to read it. What really
bothered me about what this article is saying is that now that drug
addiction is seen as a problem of white people, the emphasis is moving from
crime prevention to medical treatment. It should be treatment, regardless of
whether the addicts are white or black. But that's not how things are in our
society.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Abby Vincent
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2016 4:28 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Federal Drug Policy Softens as Whites Become
Face of Heroin Addiction
My adult niece is addicted to pain killers. California, as well as the
federal government, is making these drugs harder to get, at least from
doctors.
She has had some good quality rehab. If this doesn't succeed, the chances
are good she'll use heroin. Since it's a street drug, you don't know what
you're getting...and, it's harder to kick.
I sure hope the public health system comes up with a solution.
Abby
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2016 12:50 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Federal Drug Policy Softens as Whites Become Face
of Heroin Addiction
Fonseca writes: "The numbers speak loud and clear about who's suffering from
America's current heroin crisis-white people. The American Medical
Association reports that 90 percent of first-time heroin users in the last
decade were white."
Shawn Cross of Lisbon, Maine, made the switch from opiate painkillers to
heroin and became an addict. He now works at Catholic Charities and helps
recovering addicts. (photo: Nikki Kahn/WP/Getty Images)
Federal Drug Policy Softens as Whites Become Face of Heroin Addiction By
David Fonseca, TakePart 10 January 16
The numbers speak loud and clear about who's suffering from America's
current heroin crisis-white people. The American Medical Association reports
that 90 percent of first-time heroin users in the last decade were white.
But that didn't stop Maine Gov. Paul LePage from using racially coded
language to blame his predominantly white state's heroin problem on
outsiders.
"These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty-these types of
guys-they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell
their heroin, they go back home," LePage said during a town hall meeting on
Thursday. "Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl
before they leave, which is a real sad thing, because then we have another
issue we have to deal with down the road."
In addition to prompting accusations of racial insensitivity, LePage's
comments also betray a lack of understanding about who is most affected by
the crisis. Heroin addiction disproportionately impacts white families, and
U.S. drug policy is changing as a result-reversing long-standing trends in
which drug addiction was largely perceived as a problem for racial
minorities and seen as grounds for stricter law enforcement and prison
sentencing.
The move, which was spearheaded by House Appropriations Committee Chairman
Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
signaled a surprising change of heart for the party that once equated such
harm-reduction programs to surrender.
Asked to explain why he chose to champion funding for needle exchange
programs after publicly opposing them, Rogers told TakePart in an emailed
statement that he "still [opposes] the use of federal funds to subsidize
illicit drug use, but also believes many organizations administering syringe
exchange programs at the state and local level are uniquely poised to
provide much-needed intervention for those struggling with addiction."
According to the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, heroin overdose
claimed the lives of 233 residents in 2014, as compared with 22 deaths there
in 2010. Across the country, heroin deaths have increased from approximately
2,000 in 2002 to nearly 11,000 in 2014, according to the National Institute
on Drug Abuse.
In hard-hit Ohio, Libby Harrison, director of the Cincinnati Exchange
Project, welcomed the federal funding, saying she now keeps clean syringes
in the hands of addicts by "nickel-and-diming to the nth degree."
Through the ban on using federal funds to purchase syringes remains in
place, the measure allows money to flow toward staffing, vans, educational
materials, and other line items crucial to the daily function of needle
exchange programs.
"A good portion of addicts don't want to be using anymore," Harrison said.
"If they are comfortable, I'll take their number, and we'll sit down and
talk about what programs work best for them. We connect people to HIV care,
hepatitis C care, domestic abuse programs, and housing programs. I'm not a
social worker, but I'm pretty good at getting you to the right social
worker."
Jelani Kerr of the University of Louisville School of Public Health and
Information Sciences said the high rate of hepatitis C in Kentucky and the
HIV outbreak in neighboring Indiana demonstrate the risks of sharing needles
and the urgent need for effective harm-reduction programs.
"[These crises] necessitate evidence-based strategies to combat the threat
of these diseases, and syringe exchange is considered an effective
evidence-based strategy to reduce HIV and hep C risk," Kerr said.
The data on needle exchange programs has been clear since at least April
1998, when then-Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna
Shalala announced, following an extensive study, that "needle exchange
programs can reduce the transmission of HIV and save lives without losing
ground in the battle against illegal drugs."
That same year, then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, responded to
President Bill Clinton's proposal to eliminate the funding ban by
proclaiming that "there can be no middle ground in the war on drugs."
President Barack Obama would lift the ban in 2009, only to see it reinstated
by Republicans after their takeover of the House of Representatives during
the 2010 midterm elections.
Harrison says the change of heart experienced by Republicans can be at least
partly attributed to heroin's effects on white middle-class families.
"It's all over the demographic map, from long-term addicts in their 60s and
70s to very wealthy kids pulling up in Mercedes-Benzes," Harrison said.
"Some of the legislators are upset because suddenly it's a family member
who's affected. It does hit closer to home."
Kenney Miller, the executive director of the Health Equity Alliance in
Ellsworth, Maine, said a similar scenario is playing out with the
predominantly white residents of his state, despite LePage's attempt to tie
the heroin crisis to insidious outsiders.
"People in general tend to be more impacted when they can connect with the
victims, and by and large, Congress is still predominantly composed of
Caucasian middle-class people with advanced levels of education, and they're
much more able to connect to people that they know," Miller said. "I think
that more and more there's a growing recognition that substance abuse
affects everybody, and there's been a dispelling of the myth of the
strung-out junkie living on the streets."
Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a research analyst at Washington, D.C.-based The
Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy group, said it's worth
questioning whether rehabilitation-based approaches would be embraced if
heroin were perceived as an epidemic among African Americans and Latinos.
"The more people associate drug crime with people of color, the more likely
they are to support punitive policy solutions. Usually as a result of a
perceived epidemic, we see predominantly terrible polices as a result. But
in this case we are seeing a move in the treatment direction, which is a
really positive outcome," Ghandnoosh said. "So the question is, how much is
this about race? And how do we replicate this next time, if those impacted
by the perceived epidemic aren't white?"
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Shawn Cross of Lisbon, Maine, made the switch from opiate painkillers to
heroin and became an addict. He now works at Catholic Charities and helps
recovering addicts. (photo: Nikki Kahn/WP/Getty Images)
http://news.yahoo.com/federal-drug-policy-softens-whites-become-face-heroin-
221443159.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/federal-drug-policy-softens-whites-becom
e-face-heroin-221443159.html
Federal Drug Policy Softens as Whites Become Face of Heroin Addiction By
David Fonseca, TakePart 10 January 16 he numbers speak loud and clear about
who's suffering from America's current heroin crisis-white people. The
American Medical Association reports that 90 percent of first-time heroin
users in the last decade were white.
But that didn't stop Maine Gov. Paul LePage from using racially coded
language to blame his predominantly white state's heroin problem on
outsiders.
"These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty-these types of
guys-they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell
their heroin, they go back home," LePage said during a town hall meeting on
Thursday. "Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl
before they leave, which is a real sad thing, because then we have another
issue we have to deal with down the road."
In addition to prompting accusations of racial insensitivity, LePage's
comments also betray a lack of understanding about who is most affected by
the crisis. Heroin addiction disproportionately impacts white families, and
U.S. drug policy is changing as a result-reversing long-standing trends in
which drug addiction was largely perceived as a problem for racial
minorities and seen as grounds for stricter law enforcement and prison
sentencing.
The move, which was spearheaded by House Appropriations Committee Chairman
Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
signaled a surprising change of heart for the party that once equated such
harm-reduction programs to surrender.
Asked to explain why he chose to champion funding for needle exchange
programs after publicly opposing them, Rogers told TakePart in an emailed
statement that he "still [opposes] the use of federal funds to subsidize
illicit drug use, but also believes many organizations administering syringe
exchange programs at the state and local level are uniquely poised to
provide much-needed intervention for those struggling with addiction."
According to the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, heroin overdose
claimed the lives of 233 residents in 2014, as compared with 22 deaths there
in 2010. Across the country, heroin deaths have increased from approximately
2,000 in 2002 to nearly 11,000 in 2014, according to the National Institute
on Drug Abuse.
In hard-hit Ohio, Libby Harrison, director of the Cincinnati Exchange
Project, welcomed the federal funding, saying she now keeps clean syringes
in the hands of addicts by "nickel-and-diming to the nth degree."
Through the ban on using federal funds to purchase syringes remains in
place, the measure allows money to flow toward staffing, vans, educational
materials, and other line items crucial to the daily function of needle
exchange programs.
"A good portion of addicts don't want to be using anymore," Harrison said.
"If they are comfortable, I'll take their number, and we'll sit down and
talk about what programs work best for them. We connect people to HIV care,
hepatitis C care, domestic abuse programs, and housing programs. I'm not a
social worker, but I'm pretty good at getting you to the right social
worker."
Jelani Kerr of the University of Louisville School of Public Health and
Information Sciences said the high rate of hepatitis C in Kentucky and the
HIV outbreak in neighboring Indiana demonstrate the risks of sharing needles
and the urgent need for effective harm-reduction programs.
"[These crises] necessitate evidence-based strategies to combat the threat
of these diseases, and syringe exchange is considered an effective
evidence-based strategy to reduce HIV and hep C risk," Kerr said.
The data on needle exchange programs has been clear since at least April
1998, when then-Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna
Shalala announced, following an extensive study, that "needle exchange
programs can reduce the transmission of HIV and save lives without losing
ground in the battle against illegal drugs."
That same year, then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, responded to
President Bill Clinton's proposal to eliminate the funding ban by
proclaiming that "there can be no middle ground in the war on drugs."
President Barack Obama would lift the ban in 2009, only to see it reinstated
by Republicans after their takeover of the House of Representatives during
the 2010 midterm elections.
Harrison says the change of heart experienced by Republicans can be at least
partly attributed to heroin's effects on white middle-class families.
"It's all over the demographic map, from long-term addicts in their 60s and
70s to very wealthy kids pulling up in Mercedes-Benzes," Harrison said.
"Some of the legislators are upset because suddenly it's a family member
who's affected. It does hit closer to home."
Kenney Miller, the executive director of the Health Equity Alliance in
Ellsworth, Maine, said a similar scenario is playing out with the
predominantly white residents of his state, despite LePage's attempt to tie
the heroin crisis to insidious outsiders.
"People in general tend to be more impacted when they can connect with the
victims, and by and large, Congress is still predominantly composed of
Caucasian middle-class people with advanced levels of education, and they're
much more able to connect to people that they know," Miller said. "I think
that more and more there's a growing recognition that substance abuse
affects everybody, and there's been a dispelling of the myth of the
strung-out junkie living on the streets."
Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a research analyst at Washington, D.C.-based The
Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy group, said it's worth
questioning whether rehabilitation-based approaches would be embraced if
heroin were perceived as an epidemic among African Americans and Latinos.
"The more people associate drug crime with people of color, the more likely
they are to support punitive policy solutions. Usually as a result of a
perceived epidemic, we see predominantly terrible polices as a result. But
in this case we are seeing a move in the treatment direction, which is a
really positive outcome," Ghandnoosh said. "So the question is, how much is
this about race? And how do we replicate this next time, if those impacted
by the perceived epidemic aren't white?"
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http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
