Candidate downplays opioid epidemic

Nevada governor candidate Chris Giunchigliani appeared to dismiss the growing opioid epidemic at a campaign event this year.

While speaking at a Douglas County Democrats dinner on Feb. 17, Giunchigliani told the crowd that “there’s an epidemic and it’s not just opioids. Because with no disrespect, that’s a white person’s drug right now,” according to a video excerpt of the event obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“You have to deal with heroin, we have to deal with drugs, we have to deal with alcohol. We have to deal with gambling. And that’s all across the state,” Giunchigliani continued in the video.

Then, she added: “Methadone is still highly used in the rural counties. We have an obligation and a responsibility to make sure we’re treating mental health because the addictions are a symptom of that. It’s not the cause. And we have to do better. We have never really restored the funding that was cut back in the ’80s. We have an obligation, and as governor, I want to

OPIOIDS

work on that.”

Are Giunchigliani’s claims accurate?

Yes and no.

Nationally, opioids have predominantly hit white, rural communities disproportionately harder than African-American or Latino communities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several studies suggest that was because doctors were less willing to prescribe painkillers to minorities because they viewed them as more susceptible to addiction.

But lately, that trend has shifted significantly.

The rates for overall drug overdoses for African-Americans had been steadily rising from 2010 to 2015, though at a slower rate than for whites.

In 2016, however, the death rates spiked by about 56 percent for African-Americans, jumping from 6.6 per 100,000 to 10.3 per 100,000, compared with a jump from 13.9 to 17.5 for whites.

And there’s no difference in prescription opioid use between blacks and whites, according to the CDC.

Still, whites continue to bear the brunt of the opioid crisis in Nevada. Eighty-three percent of opioid-related deaths were among whites in 2016, state data show. That’s equal to 20.9 per 100,000 Nevadans.

Among blacks, the rate was 12.3 per 100,000, or 8 percent of deaths, according to the data provided by the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Giunchigliani’s campaign manager Eric Hyers tried to clarify the candidate’s remarks from the dinner, saying that she meant the crisis has gotten widespread attention because it is perceived to affect white communities.

“This is in no way to diminish its impact on so many diverse families all over the country, but rather to