It's late, but it took a bit to write this out. Today for #BlackInNeuroWeek we're focusing on #NeuroRacism and ways our work has been #NeuroComplicit in perpetuating racism. And I've got a bone to pick with #Addiction research regarding the #OpioidCrisis. A brief thread
(1/9)

First, let me say that the opioid crisis is real. I don't want any part of what I say to be misconstrued as understating the recent rapid and horrifying spike in opioid overdose deaths. People are dying and it needs to be addressed. (2/9)

This opioid crisis has brought about a new level of understanding in the general public regarding the nature of addiction and how it is in fact a disease and not simply a moral failure, and I know I'm not alone among addiction researchers in celebrating this revelation (3/9)

HOWEVER. Every time I hear a talk that highlights the importance of addiction research by talking about the opioid crisis, while failing to even mention the history of violence perpetuated against the Black community in the form of drugs, I feel like I'm gonna lose it. (4/9)

We as a field need to do better about explicitly calling out the fact that addiction wasn't widely seen as a disease, or a public health crisis, until it started affecting white people. (5/9)

Black communitues were flooded with drugs. The War on Drugs was a thinly veiled attack that kicked off a surge of mass incarceration that has disproportionately targeted Black people ever since. (6/9)

Yes, we are now facing a surge in overdose deaths due to opioids. But 50 years ago Black people were thrown into jails for some of the very same drugs. Black communities were ravaged by drug overdoses, countless Black lives cut short and forever altered by imprisonment. (7/9)

I love that people are starting to see the humanity of those struggling with substance use disorders. As researchers we have a responsibility to give voice to the science of addiction but we also have a responsibility to ensure this newfound compassion extends to everyone. (8/9)

Please stop talking about the opioid crisis like its somehow worse than the decades of devastation still impacting Black and Brown communities. (9/9)