This post was written by freelance contributor Marcus Johnson.
More than 80 percent of individuals who overdose on opioids are white. Juxtaposed with the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, where use of the drug was associated with African Americans living in urban areas, it’s clear that the collective political and cultural response to a drug crisis in the U.S. is heavily influenced by the demographics of the epidemic.
The punitive nature of the 1980s “War on Drugs” can be summed up by the 100-1 ratio crack cocaine was given over the powdered cocaine more often used by whites, in which 100 times the amount of powder cocaine would trigger a mandatory minimum prison sentence. In 1989, a New York Times poll found that seven out of 10 Americans approved of President Bush’s “tough on crime” strategy to fight drugs. In contrast, almost the same percentage of Americans today believe that opioid addicts should be given treatment, not jail time. Present-day opioid addicts are given compassion, drug diversion programs, and in many cases, protection from arrest and prosecution. Crack cocaine addicts were met with scorn and mandatory minimums for drug possession. Ironically, federal and state governments would be in a better position to fight the opioid crisis today if racism hadn’t been the driving political response to the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s.
In 2017, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency and called it “the worst drug crisis in American history.” Federal and state governments have worked together in recent years to offer counseling, treatment, rehab, and diversion programs to those suffering from opioid addiction. This is in stark contrast to what authorities offered crack cocaine addicts in the 1980s—mandatory minimums and tough-on-drugs legislation. The cultural sneering and contempt given to black crack cocaine addicts (the term crackhead doesn’t have a contemporary equivalent for opioid addicts) is very different than the compassion and understanding given to white opioid users today. Understanding the differences in the political response to the crack epidemic of the 1980s and the present opioid epidemic gives us a better grasp of American politics and culture.
In 2017, a Virginia Commonwealth University poll found that more than six out of 10 Virginians believed that heroin and prescription drug abusers should get treatment instead of jail time. A North Carolina poll conducted in the same year had 56 percent of respondents say that illegal prescription drug use should be treated by doctors through the medical system, not through the criminal justice system. The cultural shift toward compassion for those suffering from opioid addiction has come with political action. Local authorities have increasingly charged doctors for patient overdoses while increasing access to substitute drugs like methadone to “wean” opioid users off of drugs in a controlled, clinical setting. This is in addition to police and county-level authorities making overdose reversal drugs like naloxone more commonly available.
Forty states have enacted “Good Samaritan” laws, which grant legal immunity to those calling 911 for medical assistance during a drug overdose. For example, if two opioid users are in a home, in possession of controlled substances or drug paraphernalia, and call 911 for overdose treatment, they would not be arrested, charged, or prosecuted. Washington County in upstate New York even created a special opioid diversion court which provides opioid addicts accused of minor crimes with “drug treatment, counseling, support, skills-building, physical activity, and court oversight” to help them beat their addiction. This level of cultural compassion and political support means that opioid addicts don’t have the same stigma that crack cocaine addicts did.
Opioid addicts often avoid prosecution and conviction for drug crimes, which allows them to keep their jobs or to pursue new careers without having to check off the felony conviction box on a job application form. Not only were crack-related convicts in the 1980s separated from their families while in prison, they also lost the right to vote in many states when they got out. These are problems opioid addicts have largely been exempted from.
The crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s was met with a harsh political response and cultural contempt. Presidents Reagan and Bush intensified the “War on Drugs” that began under Nixon with a particular focus on increasing arrests and procuring long prison sentences for drug users. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act Of 1986 mandated felony charges and mandatory minimum prison sentences for individuals possessing even relatively small amounts of cocaine. The 100-1 weight ratio crack cocaine was given over powdered cocaine led to African Americans facing harsher punishment for essentially committing the same crime. The ACLU noted that this meant “distribution of just 5 grams of crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence, while distribution of 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence.”
Since Nixon began the War on Drugs, the prison population has increased 500 percent. Research from The Sentencing Project found that black people are incarcerated at five times the rate of whites, and that black prisoners make up more than one-half of the prison population in 12 states. That is despite black people only being about 13 percent of the U.S. population. These numbers can be traced back to the intensification of drug laws in the 1980s at the federal and state level—today’s disproportionately black prison population was the intended outcome.
If the crack cocaine epidemic was met with compassion, treatment centers, overdose reversal drugs, Good Samaritan laws, and diversion courts, authorities would have far more information on the effectiveness of these types of programs. Instead, officials are flying blind in the opioid crisis, and are struggling to figure out which programs actually prevent relapses and overdoses.
The differences in the U.S. response to the opioid and crack epidemics is emblematic of a larger American cultural problem. Black people are punished more often and more severely for committing the same offenses as whites. This exists on lower-level infractions, such as marijuana possession and school suspensions, and serious issues like who receives the death penalty. The public tends to feel less sympathy for black offenders, whereas white offenders get more compassion and sympathy (just look at the contemporary polling on the War on Drugs versus how opioid addiction is viewed).
The answer to this problem is complex, as these political and cultural inequalities have been built into the U.S. system over generations. Even talking about these disparities at all is still controversial in some circles. But compassion shouldn’t be a one-way street, and there has to be a way to standardize the criminal justice system so that black Americans aren’t getting punished more often—and more severely—for simply having darker skin.