Pubdate: Mon, 09 Nov 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Carrie Mumah
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n611/a06.html

WHITE ATTITUDES ON HEROIN ADDICTION

To the Editor:

My brother was one of the many white middle-class people lost to 
heroin. He died in August at 32.

I understand and live every day the desire to want a softer approach 
to drugs: one that sees everyone as human and doesn't see addiction 
as a weakness or delinquency. I know how upsetting it can be to hear 
jokes about "junkies."

But it almost pains me even more to know that until heroin reached 
crisis levels in largely white suburbs like the one my brother and I 
grew up in, no one paid much attention to those calling for a focus 
on treatment and calling out the policing that has become a fact of 
life in black communities.

Even if we are improving how we treat people suffering from 
addiction, if these changes are a result of racism, can they really 
be called progress?

Real progress would focus on the reality of how misguided drug laws 
and racism within the criminal justice system have resulted in the 
systematic incarceration of minority communities.

CARRIE MUMAH

Brooklyn
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom