We scorned addicts when they were black. It is different now…

addiction recovery ebulletin addicts scorned

White Privilege –

April 12, 2018 – We have been here before — a raging epidemic of addiction that destroys lives, families and communities. Who was on the front line in the 1990s, when the drug was crack and the addicts were mostly black? Drug czar William Bennett. His weapon was prosecution and prison. Today, when the drugs are opioids and the addicts are mostly white? U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, a doctor, is out there, telling the country, “We need to see addiction as a chronic disease and not a moral failing.” Imagine President George H.W. Bush saying those words, while holding a little baggie of crack cocaine during the height of America’s epidemic in 1989.to suffer withdrawal, unremitting pain and thoughts about suicide. Others “fired” patients with chronic pain and refused to take on new patients with chronic pain. Some walk-in clinics posted signs saying that their doctors do not prescribe opiates. At the time, Dr. Owen Williamson said it was causing “chaos” and “mayhem” for both doctors and their patients with lupus, arthritis, fibromyalgia, spinal bifida, pain from accidents. Williamson is the president of the B.C. Pain Medicine Specialists Association.