Addicted? The color of skin does matter

It was the massive response to the overdoses on the New Haven Green that had me thinking about the drug crisis and writing this column.

But my thoughts come from growing up in the midst of drugs, and it is hard for me to look at the current opioid catastrophe and not feel empathy for the black community.

Since I can remember, parents and advocates in poor black communities have been asking that something be done about the infiltration of drugs in our communities.

Every black child in low-income neighborhoods grows up with street corner sales and watching people decay from drug use.

I have made it no secret that drugs were dumped in impoverished black neighborhoods and, in desperation, the desperate grabbed hold and became dealers or junkies — many times, both.

But the cries from the black community largely were ignored as the crisis deepened and neighborhoods and people deteriorated.

First heroin — and then crack cocaine — went on a rampage, stomping out a generation that in many cases produced another generation of addicts.

Nothing consequential was done by local, state or federal officials to help poor, black parents cope with losing their children.

Instead, black parents were taken to task for their shortcomings in raising “junkies,” and were taunted, shamed and humiliated under glaring eyes with undertones of, “it’s your child. You raised him,” when reaching out for help. Addicts were referred to as the lowest of the low, thrown in prison, and pretty much symbolically spit on by everyone.

The best the black community could hope for was an occasional drug help center that was never staffed or funded properly but strategically announced in October of an election year.

But then, the unthinkable happened: opioids and heroin hit the suburbs and swept through tony bedroom communities nationwide — and everything has changed.

The help is rolling out with more funding and more training. Even pharmacists are prowling the streets to hand out Narcan to caregivers to revive those who overdose.

And during the last year, I have even seen how the approach to treating and talking to drug addicts has changed.

Suddenly, they’ve become valued citizens who shouldn’t be stigmatized and looked down upon.

The real nitty gritty language associated with being an addict — junkie, druggie, smackhead, dope fiend — has been softened and replaced with manicured, high gloss verbiage — such as a substance-use disorder.

To me, they will always be junkies and dope fiends, because those were the terms hung on black drug users as I grew up. But I am OK with the change in language and the multiple services, because isn’t that the way it should have always been?

After all, we are dealing with human beings — and in America, more than 115 of them die every day after overdosing on opioids, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports.

Here in the Nutmeg state, Hearst Connecticut Media reported that 1,038 people died from overdoses in 2017 and the Office of the Medical Examiner projects that number won’t decrease in 2018.

Yes, those are certainly numbers that bear heeding and America seems to have finally found her hearing aids.

Opioids may be getting the attention in 2018 but there had been a drug crisis for decades in the United States that largely had been ignored.

I wonder what changed? Addicted? The color of skin does matter.

James Walker is the Register’s senior editor. He can be reached at 203-680-9389 or james.walker@hearstmediact.com. Follow him on Twitter @thelieonroars.