WEBVTT - How Similar Is the Opioid Epidemic to the Crack Epidemic?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbon, and I've got a serious but important

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<v Speaker 1>topic for you today. In October of seventeen, President Donald

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<v Speaker 1>Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency.

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<v Speaker 1>In the White House ceremony, Trump said, nobody has seen

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<v Speaker 1>anything like what's going on now, referring to the thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of Americans overdosing every year from a class of narcotics

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<v Speaker 1>that includes prescription painkillers, heroine, and fentanyl, which is a

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<v Speaker 1>synthetic form of heroin. It's a serious problem and a

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<v Speaker 1>sentiment echoed by well meaning public figures across the board.

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<v Speaker 1>But the thing is, we have seen its like before.

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<v Speaker 1>Back in the nine eighties and early nineties, the crack

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<v Speaker 1>cocaine epidemic ravaged poor black communities across the country. When

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<v Speaker 1>krack arrived in economically depressed urban areas, it proved both

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<v Speaker 1>powerfully addicted and potentially lucrative. Violent turf wars erupted as

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<v Speaker 1>dealers fought for control of the market, and the group

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<v Speaker 1>of addiction caught many people. The guv mints response to

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<v Speaker 1>the crack epidemic was to double down on the war

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<v Speaker 1>on drugs, first declared by Richard Nixon in nineteen seventy one.

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<v Speaker 1>In nineteen six, Congress passed to the infamous one to

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<v Speaker 1>one sentencing law, which treated possession of one gram of crack,

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<v Speaker 1>not the sale, mind just possession, as the equivalent of

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<v Speaker 1>possessing one hundred grams of powder cocaine. This was on

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<v Speaker 1>top of a five year mandatory minimum sentence for first

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<v Speaker 1>time possession of crack. Since black people accounted for eight

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<v Speaker 1>of crack arrests, black communities were the hardest hit by

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<v Speaker 1>the criminalization of crack, which sent young black men to

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<v Speaker 1>prison at historic rates. The federal prison population swelled between

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<v Speaker 1>the years five and two thousand, and two thirds of

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<v Speaker 1>those convictions were for drug offenses. Studies have shown that

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<v Speaker 1>although Blacks are no more likely than whites to use

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<v Speaker 1>illegal drugs, there six to ten times more likely to

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<v Speaker 1>be incarcerated for drug offenses. In contrast to the tough

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<v Speaker 1>on crime response to the crack epidemic, which took its

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<v Speaker 1>toll primarily on poor black unities, the government responds to

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<v Speaker 1>the opioid crisis, in which more than pent of overdose

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<v Speaker 1>victims are white, has been wildly different, particularly in the

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<v Speaker 1>way that elected officials and law enforcement talk about addiction.

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<v Speaker 1>Police departments across the country adopted treatment first policies that

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<v Speaker 1>postponed or forwent criminal prosecution for opioid possession and diverted

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<v Speaker 1>drug offenders to treatment programs. Police officers in the small

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<v Speaker 1>town of Laconia, New Hampshire, a state hit particularly hard

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<v Speaker 1>by overdose deaths, carry business cards that read the Laconia

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<v Speaker 1>Police Department recognizes that substance misuse is a disease. We

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<v Speaker 1>understand you can't fight this alone. One reason that most

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<v Speaker 1>opioid addicts are white could be because they are more

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<v Speaker 1>likely to be prescribed pain medication. One study showed that

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<v Speaker 1>doctors are less likely to prescribe pain medication for their

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<v Speaker 1>black patients, believing falsely that they have higher pain thresholds.

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<v Speaker 1>But we spoke with Eco Yanka, a law professor at

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<v Speaker 1>Shiva University, who finds this treatment first rhetoric a little

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<v Speaker 1>bitter sweet. He says that while it's heartening to see

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<v Speaker 1>local law enforcement and elected officials talking about addicts as

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<v Speaker 1>victims instead of moral degenerates, it's not like any of

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<v Speaker 1>this is based on new information. He said. We spent

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<v Speaker 1>two generations locking up young black men for any reason

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<v Speaker 1>we could, in large part covered by the War on drugs,

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<v Speaker 1>and then we have an explosion of addiction in the

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<v Speaker 1>white community, and suddenly everyone starts reading all the science

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<v Speaker 1>that's been around for two decades. Yanka is one of

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<v Speaker 1>many voices calling out the clear racial divide between the

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<v Speaker 1>hyper criminalization and moral outcry over crack addiction and the

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<v Speaker 1>leniency and compassion shown towards opioid addiction. When pregnant black

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<v Speaker 1>mothers became addicted to crack, it created a national panic

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<v Speaker 1>over crack babies. Today, a baby is born addicted to

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<v Speaker 1>opioids every nineteen minutes, but there's no parallel vilification of

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<v Speaker 1>opioid moms. The crack baby panic of late nineteen eighties

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<v Speaker 1>was sparked by one preliminary study of just twenty three

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<v Speaker 1>infants and led to predictions that an entire generation would

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<v Speaker 1>grow up sickly, brain damaged, and heavily dependent on social services.

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<v Speaker 1>Longitudinal studies have since exposed the crack baby myth, showing

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<v Speaker 1>that full term babies born to crack addicted mothers show

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<v Speaker 1>no health differences compared to their peers. One of the

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<v Speaker 1>key talking points of the presidential campaign was the economic

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<v Speaker 1>toll of globalization on rural, mostly white communities, and how

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<v Speaker 1>the ensuing joblessness and hopelessness helped to fuel the opioid crisis.

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<v Speaker 1>We spoke with Maya Slavitts, a New York based journalist

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<v Speaker 1>who has written extensively about addiction. They said, the reason

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<v Speaker 1>we saw crack hit black neighborhoods the way it did

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<v Speaker 1>in the eighties and nineties was because they had high

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<v Speaker 1>unemployment levels and were hit hard by d industrialization, all

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<v Speaker 1>the same things we're seeing in rural white communities now.

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<v Speaker 1>Yanka says that plenty of sociologists and economists were making

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<v Speaker 1>those connections back in the nineteen eighties, but their voices

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<v Speaker 1>and data were drowned out by a media narrative that

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<v Speaker 1>preferred to place the blame for the crack epidemic on

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<v Speaker 1>negligent black mothers and absent black fathers. While we'd hope

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<v Speaker 1>that the narrative surrounding today's opioid epidemic wouldn't change if

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<v Speaker 1>its racial demograph were reversed, we can at least speak

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<v Speaker 1>glad that some of the people facing addiction aren't going

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<v Speaker 1>it alone, and that some of the programs being created

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<v Speaker 1>will help all of our struggling citizens in the future.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.