Published by the Black Commentator - October 24, 2024
For people like me who organize in distressed Black neighborhoods and who carry Narcan daily on their person, the reports of this promising trend did not match up with my reality. My suspicions are that the downward trend referred to the more affluent, white communities where attention and resources have been targeted in recent years.
In my home state of Missouri, the Department of Health had declared drug overdoses (both fatal and nonfatal) as an epidemic. It’s an epidemic that transcends race, gender, age and sexual orientation. It has become the #1 leading cause of death among adults aged 18-44 years old in a state that generally ranks low in quality-of-life indicators.
A mass of white rural residences lies between two urban cities on opposite sides of the state. In 2022, Boone County (rural) and St. Louis County (urban) were in the top ten counties for drug overdoses. Poor rural counties and decaying urban centers are in the same boat when it comes to opioid overdoses. They share similar economic disparities, political disenfranchisement and social isolation that make a smorgasbord of opioid drugs appealing.
These potentially deadly drugs include oxycodone, morphine, heroin, methadone and fentanyl. As a synthetic opioid, fentanyl is cheap and very accessible. And because those who I call street pharmacists are doing the mixing with no regard for body size and other health conditions, overdoses are more common. The drug is a driving force in the chemical warfare that plagues our communities. Fentanyl is said to be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. That’s powerful stuff.
It’s not just that the drugs can be non-prescription (illegal); the danger comes when fentanyl is mixed with other drugs unbeknownst to the buyer. Illegal powdered fentanyl can be made to look like legit prescription opioids. It can also be found in liquid form in nasal sprays, eye drops and even candies. Candy? This may be why some of the drug fatalities in Missouri include children, some under the age of four years old.
Obviously, everyone abusing opioids is not escaping pain from injury or post-surgery medical mishaps. Far too many are trying to escape the mental pain from a desperate life of misery and disappointments. This is why understanding the mental and psychological effects of capitalism are equally important, not just the economic impacts. Those insights must go beyond the concerns of organizers and social services agents. This is a human rights issue that affects the quality of life of families as well as the economic, social, and political life of the country.
As a consequential election draws near and a divided country sharpens, it is imperative that the choices we make at the ballot box bring us closer to conditions that allow us to put human needs at home in the forefront, and not military ambitions abroad.
