Black youth died in cities throughout America due to excessive doses of drugs at high rates in the 1980s and 1990s. During the recent fentanel crisis, the older black men in many cities died at unusually high rates.
They are all of the same generation.
An investigation reveals millions of death records – in a partnership between the New York Times, Baltimore, large local news and nine other news rooms throughout the country – about the impact of the death of an overdose of drugs on one group of black men in dozens of cities throughout America is almost every stage of their adult life.
In recent years, the epidemic has brought serious drugs to every corner of the country, and excessive doses have risen between the younger population, white and rural.
This big tide seems to be receded – but not for this group of black men. In the ten cities that were examined in this partnership, including Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco, Niger, Washington, Miluke and Viladelphia, black men between 54 to 73 years were dying from overdoses at more than four times the rate of other racing men.
“They were flexible enough to live through a group of other epidemics-HIV, crack, tuberculosis, multi-drug-only to kill her fentanel.” Tracie M. GardnerExecutive Director of the National Black Harm Network and former New York State Health official.
In general, the analysis identified dozens of cities, most of them in the northeast and central, where a generation of black men was more likely to have excessive deaths throughout their lives. In many of these places, the cities did little to distribute resources to these residents.
Details differ from city to city.
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In ChicagoThere is no effort focused in approximately $ 1.3 billion of the state’s opioid settlement money to help older black men, despite the heavy death of this group, Chicago Sun Times found.
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In PittsburghBlack men in prison with disorders of the use of opioids were less likely to receive medicines to combat their addiction to white men, a Publicsource investigation It was found, although local officials are working to bridge the gap.
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In San FranciscoMany men exposed to excessive overalls and cocaine doses, a mix that may make their addiction treatment more complicated, according to the analysis of death data by Standard of San Francisco.
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In Newarkand Nj.com/ The Star-landger It was also found that the excess dose victims were using opioids and cocaine.
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In BaltimoreHundreds of men were dying in senior housing, I found the Baltimore logo.
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in PhiladelphiaThe older black men were less likely to die than their white peers – until recently. By 2018, their death rate increased, according to Philadelphia analysis for investigation.
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in WashingtonLocal regulations and insurance companies have prevented doctors from giving users of Afyonin for a long time effective doses of drugs that aim to reduce the desire. The 51 found.
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In IndianapolisBlack men said they were hesitant to use public health solutions such as exchanging injection or fentian test strips due to fear of harassment by the police, Indoya mirror found.
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In Milwoki, About half of the older black men lost in front of the drugs who spent time in the state prison. Wisconsin is trying to increase access to the Correction Department treatment program, which has a waiting list of 11,700, Milwaukee and Wissonsin Watch neighborhood service was found.
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In Boston, When this contrast is a newer phenomenon, older black men feel welcoming in treatment programs, I found Boston Globe.
“He dies for decades”
Black men of this generation, who were born from 1951 to 1970, came at the age of extensive economic differences between black and eggs in their cities. Some of them served in Vietnam, where they were first exposed to heroin. In the cities where heroin was available, others began using the drug near the house in the 1970s and eighties, and became addicted.
Many continued to use drugs and stop it for decades. Although some manage their addiction safely, the risk of an overdose was always there.
Mark Robinson, 66, grew up in Washington and now runs a exchange program in the city. He is estimated that he knows 50 people who have died over the years due to excessive doses, including one of his best friends.
He said: “Black men did not start death.” “We have died decades ago as a direct result of the disturbance of the use of opiates.”
Cities that contain this type of drug deaths tend to be places with large black residents, an intense residential separation and heroin markets that were active in the 1970s, when the oldest of these men were young and first exposed to illegal drugs, according to Dr. Dan Sekaron, Professor of Family and Society at the University of California, San Francisco.
“Heroin has become a settlement problem,” he said. “He didn’t go away.”
In addition to the danger of an overdose, the men of this generation lived through cramps in public health and criminal justice. In the 1980s, some have been exposed to HIV through drug injection. In the 1990s, the most aggressive sentences for drug crime means that many of them have spent time in prisons or prisons.
Many public health researchers have said that a wide prison may reduce the chances of these men to stay clean. “You are essentially disming them from a good life,” said Ricky Belthntal, a professor of public health at the University of Southern California, who has studied drug use for decades. “They lose their friends, lose homes, and lose prayers for their children.”
They have lived through Covid’s social disorders, a period of isolation coincided with an increase in the excess dose rate for almost all groups.
It will also benefit from embracing the recent medical methods of drug addiction. Medicines are distributed that can be reversed in a wide excess dose in many cities. More doctors are ready to prescribe medications that can curb the extreme desire for drugs for people who want to quit smoking.
But in many cities where older black men die at high rates, these innovations may not reach this group.
Contracts of drug use, criminal risks and shame made some hesitation in discussing their addiction. Kendra Brooks, a member of the Philadelphia Council, said she recently learned of nine excess doses among the elderly from the black population in her neighborhood. Excessive doses occurred quietly, in private homes.
“In this generation, you do not get a height in public places,” said Ms. Brooks. “It’s a very special and personal. Among the people I know, it’s like a secret disease.”
It was older black drug users Less like eggs To receive prescribed medications that are now the golden standard for addiction treatment.
Medicare, the general program that guarantees the elderly Americans, tends to cover less addiction services than youth insurance.
In general, it targets many of the smaller population awareness programs.
He said: “If you go to the program to reduce the damage, it is not usually prepared with the position of the elderly in mind.” Saloner Brendan, Professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, who is studying access to health care among people who use drugs. “They are not in any way not welcome, but they are not the goal in general.”
In Chicago, Vania Portford-Biri, who runs the West Side Square and opioids, appealed to state officials to devote more resources to the older black drug users in the city at another meeting.
She said, “It seems that there is a blind spot when it comes to setting the priorities of black men, and older black men and the use of drugs.”
Not any real heroin
The experience of this generation also highlights how dangerous drug supplies are. Despite the best treatment and more resources to combat addiction, the excessive death rate among the older black men has increased in these cities in recent years, as heroin has been replaced by the most effective fentanel.
“There is no real heroin that is sold in the streets,” said Joe Henry, 77. He said that his friends who were still alive were “lucky enough to survive by all kinds,” but he worried about the danger of an overdose for those who are still using. It was only once heroin in Washington now either replacement or mixed with fentanel.
Ventanil is easier for the cartals to manufacture in laboratories and escape to the country. But the highest level does not last as long as heroin, which often means drug users take more doses daily to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Its variable strength makes experienced users a fatal dose by mistake.
Nora Folko, director of the National Institute for Narcotics at the National Health Institutes, said that the pattern of the death in Baltimore was reported to the Times and the Shua Causing it To request a new research on the reason for the death of these men and how to prevent them.
Dr. Volco has admitted that their drug addiction had long put them in danger, but she said that fentanel had increased this danger significantly.
“If you, in the past, using heroin, your chances of death were much lower than the chances of death now,” she said. “The main element is now the danger of drugs.”
Sherrill Phillips, Eric Sajara, Sarah Cohen and Justin May contributed to large local news; Frank Min, Elvia Malagon and Erika Thompson of Chicago Sun Times; Aubrey Whelean and Joe Yaradi from Philadelphia Inquirer; Venore Siriuradan, Jimmy Wigan from Publicsource; Abeel Higgins and Coleen Jarabik from 51; Ryan Little from the Baltimore banner; David Sostidt, Noah Bustin and George Kelly from the standard of San Francisco; Steve Stronsky and Riley Yates from Nj.com/the Star Leidger Darian Benson and Mary Claire Moloi from Mirror Indyer; Edgar Mendez and Divin Blake from the Milwoki neighborhood service and Wissonsin Watch; And Chris Serrice and Yahyun Jong from Boston Globe.
About this project
Data and methodology can be downloaded behind this project from Stanford digital warehouse. This article was published in partnership with Baltimore Banner, large local news in Stanford and other local news means: The Chicago Sun-Times; Publicsource; 51; San Francisco standard; nj.com/the star-edger; Indy Mirror Milwaukee and Wissonsin Watch And Boston Globe.