Why does the media refer to the heroin epidemic as affecting middle class whites?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must not be a lawyer.

I am a big law partner (of color). Big law attorneys and their children are dropping like flies. I can think of six overdoses and three deaths in the past two years, and I am not even trying hard. All whites.

I don’t feel sorry for any of them. UMC whites have zero compassion for others. If this epidemic was killing blacks at sky high rates, the UMC whites who decide what is newsworthy and control news networks wouldn’t give the issue any air time.

I believe the opioid epidemic is a side effect of the winner takes all, zero sum, every man for himself culture that prevails in America today. Guess who are the architects of that culture. Karma.

Agree with you 100% on paragraphs 3-4. When it was the crack epidemic, society viewed it as a character flaw among the AA victims. Now that it’s affecting whites, it’s a disease and getting political and media attention.

Correction: I do feel sorry for all victims but it is deeply unfair how addicts are treated differently based on ethnicity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are some demographics for you. 78% of opioid deaths were white in 2017. And if look at the info state by state, you can see it hits rural states very hard.

https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/opioid-overdose-deaths-by-raceethnicity/?dataView=1&activeTab=map¤tTimeframe=0&selectedDistributions=white-non-hispanic&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

Although, to be fair, Baltimore had nearly the same number of opioid deaths in 2017 as the entire state of West Virginia, which is ranked number one in opioid deaths.

[Anonymous]

I work in healthcare and have been shocked by the number of MC/UMC, sweet, “girl/boy next door” types that are being treated for opioid addiction. This disease affects everyone, regardless of skin color or SES.

And yes, now that white people are falling victim to this disease in great numbers, it is suddenly a “health crisis”. In contrast to the crack epidemic of past decades where addiction was criminalized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always hear it referred to as an issue that is affecting largely middle class whites, but from what I've seen that isn't true. It seems to be affecting poor and working class whites. I haven't seen anyone touched by it among the middle class white people I know.

Because the media hates the whites and the poors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don’t link to Fox - it’s not a source anyone who cares about America should be looking at.

Also, re: th definition of middle class, the total wealth in America has roughly tripled since 1980 while the median income has roughly stayed the same. So middle class in West Virginia in 1980 looks very very different than middle class in WVA today.

I appreciate the link and consider it a reputable news source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always hear it referred to as an issue that is affecting largely middle class whites, but from what I've seen that isn't true. It seems to be affecting poor and working class whites. I haven't seen anyone touched by it among the middle class white people I know.

Because the media hates the whites and the poors.

The media is actually sugar-coating this epidemic by not lambasting it in the same way the crack epidemic was in the 90s. Which is why you’re seeing even more middle-class and upper-class whites dying. Their children aren’t being scared into taking this seriously and parents are in denial about it being a community problem.

I’m convinced the deaths of Saoirse Kennedy and Harry Morton in just the last three months are a symptom of this denial.

[Anonymous]

In my family, I've had three 20-something white men from well off families OD in the past year.

My BIL's nephew ODed and died. One year ago he came back from starting his freshman year of college and got together with some high school friends over Thanksgiving weekend. Two kids ODed and died. Apparently the heroin was unexpectedly cut with fentanyl.

My cousin on my step grandfather's side dropped out of med school after ODing (but surviving). Apparently, he got a basketball injury in high school and became addicted. He managed his addiction through college. But went off the rails in med school. Now his life is spent managing his addiction. I think he's clean right now, but going back to med school is off the table. His dad is a mid level exec at a major company.

My cousin on my Dad's side died two months ago from an overdose. He was a D1 recruited basketball player. He had a knee injury and got hooked. His dad is in finance and he had a substantial trust fund.

At least for our family, it seems like an epidemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always hear it referred to as an issue that is affecting largely middle class whites, but from what I've seen that isn't true. It seems to be affecting poor and working class whites. I haven't seen anyone touched by it among the middle class white people I know.

Because the media hates the whites and the poors.

The media is actually sugar-coating this epidemic by not lambasting it in the same way the crack epidemic was in the 90s. Which is why you’re seeing even more middle-class and upper-class whites dying. Their children aren’t being scared into taking this seriously and parents are in denial about it being a community problem.

I’m convinced the deaths of Saoirse Kennedy and Harry Morton in just the last three months are a symptom of this denial.

I agree with this description. The Kennedy family and press made her seem like a beautiful butterfly who fluttered away but in reality she was a drug addict who had serious mental health issues. She had lots of drugs and alcohol in her system at the time of her dearth and they described it as an accidental overdose. It was an overdose. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must not be a lawyer.

I am a big law partner (of color). Big law attorneys and their children are dropping like flies. I can think of six overdoses and three deaths in the past two years, and I am not even trying hard. All whites.

I don’t feel sorry for any of them. UMC whites have zero compassion for others. If this epidemic was killing blacks at sky high rates, the UMC whites who decide what is newsworthy and control news networks wouldn’t give the issue any air time.

I believe the opioid epidemic is a side effect of the winner takes all, zero sum, every man for himself culture that prevails in America today. Guess who are the architects of that culture. Karma.

Agree with you 100% on paragraphs 3-4. When it was the crack epidemic, society viewed it as a character flaw among the AA victims. Now that it’s affecting whites, it’s a disease and getting political and media attention.

I think a huge difference between the crack epidemic and opioids epidemic is that most of the people who are becoming addicted to opioids are being introduced to them through a physical injury. They have an injury, are prescribed opioids, become addicted and it's downhill from there. In the 80's people started doing crack simply from partying. They choose to do it simply so they could get high.