PRENTISS SMITH
Watching the debate over the opioid drug crisis reminds me of a time not too long ago when another drug crisis gripped the country. Just like the opioid epidemic that is taking place right now, the crack epidemic was causing great pain in urban centers all over the country. The city of Shreveport became one of those communities where crack exploded and led to a record number of murders in the city. Crack cocaine addiction was the scourge then and opioid addiction is the scourge today.
America has experienced this type of tragedy before. The difference is that the crack epidemic took place on the streets of the inner-cities, while the opioid epidemic has no special place. The opioid crisis dwarfs the crack crisis in the number of people who are addicted to and have died from the drug, but treatment is the answer, not mass incarceration.
During the crack crisis, there were many people advocating for treatment and rehabilitation, but they were not listened to. It was about locking individuals up and throwing away the keys. America’s prison population soon ballooned to the largest in the world, and the cost of warehousing non-violent prisoners exploded. People caught with crack cocaine were routinely arrested and immediately became part of the criminal/ prison industrial complex.
Mothers were crying, sons and daughters were dying, and families were devastated just like they are now with the opioid crisis. Today, the drug dealers are the pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals. Some of them get caught up in the lucrative black market distributing these drugs. Greedy politicians and lobbyists in Washington D.C. are also a part of this American tragedy.
The crack epidemic was bad, and many families suffered, but the opioid crisis dwarfs it. Yes, people died from using crack, but those deaths were rare. The deaths surrounding crack were predominantly about turf and who was going to control the lucrative production and selling of the drug in the inner-city neighborhoods. Conversely, more than 65,000 Americans died from opioid related overdoses last year, which is more than all the people combined who died from crack.
The good news is that people in the criminal justice system realize mistakes were made during the crack epidemic, and are determined not to make those same mistakes during this crisis. Because of the mistakes made during the crack crisis, the country understands that treatment, rehabilitation, and compassion are the solutions to this epidemic, and not mass incarceration. Drug addiction is a disease like diabetes, heart disease, or any other disease, and must be treated as such. Individuals should not be criminalized because they are addicted to opioids and they should not have been criminalized because they were addicted to crack cocaine. The bad news is that there is a whole underclass of individuals who were caught up in the crack epidemic, and many of those people were drug addicts who needed treatment and not incarceration.
It is important for people who are suffering from drug addiction to realize that there is help for them, and that people are more understanding and more sympathetic to their struggles. The key is to seek help and be honest with yourself and others. The crack epidemic was bad, and impacted inner-city communities, but the opioid crisis is exponentially more devastating, because it impacts the broader community, which is predominantly white. Rural communities have been destroyed by this menace, and now the government is beginning to realize that jail is not the answer. The answer is treatment, treatment, treatment. And that’s the way I see it.
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE July 31 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.