Once certain groups are labeled as criminal or undeserving, or “not like us,” it is easy to enforce supposedly fair and colorblind laws in a discriminatory manner, whether deliberately or subconsciously.
It’s an exciting time to be an advocate for drug policy reform and harm reduction. For the first time in decades, people trumpeting the failures of the War on Drugs are being heard, while victories on overdose prevention, syringe exchange, medication assisted treatment, and more are passing in state after state. The reason for harm reduction’s sudden shift in status from outcast to mainstream public health ally can be summed up in one word: opioids. The opioid epidemic has caused a wave of drug-related death on a scale never before seen in the United States. More importantly, the problem has infiltrated the white, affluent class in charge of policy and decision-making, leading to compassionate attempts at reform that were scorned as “soft on crime” during previous drug crises, when the user population was perceived as primarily poor or brown. While the momentum to address the opioid crisis is encouraging, a major concern still lingers: What will happen to all these reforms once opioid addiction declines? Will current levels of sympathy still hold if the majority of drug users are once again perceived as poor and brown? To answer this question, I recently caught up with several national harm reductionists and drug policy advocates for advice on how to take the current momentum on drug policy reform beyond opioids. Here are the top five ways we can make reforms permanent and more equitable towards all people regardless of race or class:
[For more on this story by Tessie Castillo, go to https://www.thefix.com/moving-beyond-opioids-5-lessons-next-drug-crisis]
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