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i have chronic pain. i am also a recovering opiate addict. i wish i saw more solidarity between the two groups- both stigmatized illnesses, used against each other, but victims of the same system. better understanding this can orient all of us toward #BlackDisabledLivesMatter. 
i often see pain patients demonizing addicts, or diminishing the risk of addiction, or sober addicts acting like its the very drug itself that is evil, and there’s no reason for it to exist. but treating this with nuance means remembering who the enemy is.
fellow addicts, especially white ones- there are people for whom these drugs are a lifeline. they are in pain you can’t imagine, nothing else works, and they are owed that care. arguing otherwise erases and insults not only them, but the political and social factors to addiction.
fellow ppl w pain, especially white ones- there are absolutely no words for the damage i have seen addiction do. it commonly starts with a prescription. to blame us for your poor care, or to claim risk of addiction is minimal, is untrue, dangerous, and gets us nowhere.
drug addicts are not the reason you can’t access treatment. when you call on the idea that drug addicts are evil, a scourge on society, undeserving of help, you call on racist rhetoric from a conservative admin that started the war on drugs to further criminalize black people.
i cant do the story about opiates justice. basics: the US government has long been allowing and even aiding drug epidemics to devastate poor black and latinx communities- which keeps them poor, causes sickness and death, creates excuses for policing, mass incarceration, etc.
then huge private drug companies came along wanting to mass distribute opiates for profit. throw in corrupt doctors & a shit medical system & we have an epidemic. so big pharma makes profits, the govmnt gets to keep up the war on drugs, and its a whole profoundly systemic thing.
but now hundreds of thousands of people are dying of opiate overdoses and to protect this system, they have to look like they’re doing fucking something about it. this, dear pain patients, is where you come in.
the picture of an addict lying to a doctor for drugs, or even of an overprescribing doctor, shifts blame away from the system that creates addicts in the first place. restrictive measures that fuck over chronic pain patients make it appear like the problem is getting addressed.
point being: restricted prescribing is as pitiful a response to addiction as it is to pain. yknow what would help the opiate epidemic? decriminalization. ending the war on drugs. abolishing prisons & police. harm reduction programs. helping poor black & latinx communities thrive.
where addiction stigma is highly racialized and ableism is deeply intertwined with white supremacy, at the intersection of all this is the rights of black disabled people. any action that doesn’t center their protection is worthless all around.
likewise, the fight for black disabled people can only mean good things for addicts & pain patients.
so... support BLM. listen to angela davis talks on youtube (idk abt you, i can’t read). follow @Imani_Barbarin. carry narcan. call out addict stigma. call it racist when you do.
so... support BLM. listen to angela davis talks on youtube (idk abt you, i can’t read). follow @Imani_Barbarin. carry narcan. call out addict stigma. call it racist when you do.
tldr: disabled white women who can’t get the pain meds you need- you have a right to be angry. you also need to understand that this is a byproduct of a massive history of racism, and direct your anger in the appropriate direction.
anyone w good resources, pls drop the link!
anyone w good resources, pls drop the link!
