The recent news of drug overdose deaths seemed like a light
at the end of a long and tortuous tunnel. For
people like me who have lost a loved one to
fentanyl, it offered a glimmer of hope for
others. 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.
