December 22, 2024
According to the report, the majority of men who die from opioid overdoses are black men between the ages of 54 and 73.
The majority of American men who die of fentanyl-related opioid overdoses are black men between the ages of 54 and 73, a forgotten generation in Baltimore and elsewhere in the country, according to a joint report. The New York Times and: Baltimore flag and other editions.
According to the most recent data: Baltimore is at the center of the country’s worst drug overdose crisis Among the major US cities.
Overdose death rates in the city from 2018 to 2022 was almost double it is the next highest major city.
Compounding this crisis is the disproportionate impact on older black men, who make up a significant portion of drug overdose deaths.
Despite this, one of the most prominent deaths is attributed to a fentanyl overdose Baltimore Ravens quarterback Jaylon Ferguson, 26, was at an acquaintance’s house in 2022.
According to Tracy M. According to Gardner, executive director of the National Black Harm Reduction Network and a former New York state health official, the death of older black men is ironic because that particular demographic has survived many other epidemics.
“They were resilient enough to live through a number of other epidemics — HIV, crack, Covid, MDR-TB — only to be killed by fentanyl,” Gardner said. New York Times.
Although the analysis Times and other outlets are concentrated in cities in the Northeast and Midwest, there are other places like San Francisco where the combination of cocaine and opioids like fentanyl make it difficult to treat their addictions.
Opioid use by black men in the 50s and 70s can be traced back to the Vietnam War, where many of them were first exposed to heroin, and those men continued to use opioids when they returned home from the war.
As Mark Robinson, a 66-year-old black man who runs a syringe exchange program in Washington, said: New York TimesBlack men of his generation didn’t suddenly start dying from opioids.
“Black men didn’t just start dying,” Robinson said. “We’ve been dying for decades as a direct result of opioid use disorder.”
Complicating matters, many of the cities share patterns of drug-related deaths similar to Baltimore’s common characteristics, including a large black population, residential segregation, and a thriving heroin market in the 1970s.
“You basically disarm them from having a good life,” said University of Southern California public health professor Ricky Blutenthal. “They lose girlfriends, they lose homes, they lose connections with their children.”
In addition, policies targeting drug users meant that people in need of treatment were often incarcerated, potentially making it harder for them to stay away from drugs.
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