9.6 Conclusion
Racism has long been used to create drug laws and policies in the United States. Such drug laws and policies have resulted in the mass incarceration of disproportionate numbers of BIPOC people. Historical and contemporary under-resourcing in communities of color means that there is less access to tools to prevent the harmful impacts of drug use, including HIV, overdose, and exposure to the criminal justice system. Liberatory Harm Reduction is an anti-racist movement aimed at addressing these inequities and emphasizing body autonomy. Steps toward addressing racial inequity have been taken, such as the legalization of cannabis and Measure 110 in Oregon, but outcomes are not yet fully realized. The “War on Drugs” has failed to improve our communities or effectively address public health concerns related to drug use, and has instead further harmed and criminalized people of color. There is room for so much more to be done to address these inequalities; will you be part of the solution?
Discussion Questions and Chapter Resources
Discussion questions
- Do you know of any current drug scares in the United States? Which drugs do you hear about in the media? What tends to be the race of the users of these drugs, as described by the media? How does the perceived race of the user impact the social response to the issue?
- Why did the federal government put in place a sentencing disparity between cocaine and crack cocaine? Why did they allow this to exist?
- Describe some tactics of harm reduction that you use in your own life (for example, wearing a seat belt). Why is there opposition to harm reduction strategies for drug use, such as syringe exchange or Narcan distribution? Is this connected to racist assumptions about who uses drugs?
- How could provisions of Measure 110 be written so that people who use drugs can receive support that will prevent and address the harms of drug use?
Chapter resources
- Consider viewing a documentary about the crack epidemic of the 1980s at Netflix – Crack: Cocaine, Corruption, and Conspiracy (2021) [Website].
- Consider watching Crack Babies: A Tale from the Drug Wars [Streaming Video].
- Consider viewing the video about the opioid epidemic killing African Americans (content warning: this video contains footage of people preparing, injecting, and otherwise using substances). Addicted and Left Behind: The Opioid Epidemic Killing African Americans (13.5 minutes) [Streaming Video].
- Consider viewing the video OxyContin Patients, Then and Now [Streaming Video].
- Consider viewing the video Inside the Opioid Industry’s Marketing Machine [Streaming Video].
Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
“Conclusion” by Jessica René Peterson is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
a form of prejudice that refers to a set of negative attitudes, beliefs, and judgments about whole categories of people, and about individual members of those categories because of their perceived race and ethnicity.
a philosophy and set of empowerment-based practices that teach us how to accompany each other as we transform the root causes of harm in our lives. It is true self-determination and total body autonomy.
an effort in the United States since the 1970s to combat illegal drug use by greatly increasing penalties, enforcement, and incarceration for drug offenders (Britannica 2023).
“a form of moral panic ideologically constructed to construe one or another chemical substance as the core cause of a wide array of preexisting public problems” (Reinarman 1994
a category of people grouped because they share inherited physical characteristics that are identifiable, such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, and stature
focuses on providing people who use drugs or participate in risky activities with the information and material tools to reduce their risks while participating in these activities.
