Pubdate: Sat, 27 Feb 2016
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2016 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: Helena Hansen and Julie Netherland

MORTALITY FOR WHITES: OPIOIDS AND JOBS

To the Editor:

Re "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?" (Op-Ed, Feb. 22):

Andrew J. Cherlin does not answer a central question about the fall 
in whites' life expectancy that is driven largely by opioid overdose: 
Why are whites turning to opioids (rather than other things)? Our 
research demonstrates the development of a two-tier system of drug 
policy and clinical practice built on racial stereotypes about who is 
predisposed to abuse opioids that gave whites the dubious "privilege" 
of unparalleled access to opioids and that ultimately led to higher 
death rates.

This system operates through surreptitious ethnic marketing of opioid 
painkillers (to whites) and of white racial exceptionalism in drug 
law enforcement, in regulation of clinical practice and in addiction treatment.

If this systemic racial bias is not made visible and rectified, 
current calls by governors and federal legislators to reorient drug 
policy will likely widen, rather than narrow, racial gaps in 
incarceration and access to effective treatment. In the process, we 
miss a crucial lesson about how institutional racism also hurts whites.

HELENA HANSEN

JULIE NETHERLAND

New York

Dr. Hansen is an assistant professor of psychiatry and anthropology 
at New York University and a research psychiatrist at Nathan Kline 
Institute. Dr. Netherland is director of the Office of Academic 
Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom