>If you account for all opiates......not just heroin....than >the current epidemic is worse (by far) for black americans >than the 70's was in terms of addiction/use. THAT's something >that I've noticed is NOT being talked about. People have a >perception that black American opiate use is just crawling >along like normal and that white use has skyrocketed. It's >true that relatively speaking...the increases in white opiate >use have increased faster than the base levels of 2000. But >significant increased use is across the board for all races. >It's also true that Af-AM opiate use has grown with diminished >relevance to class. Meaning....more and more >middle/upper-middle class black people are using opiates which >is a deviation from previous trends. Ie drug addiction being >mostly a lower class problem. > >Regardless of the motivations.....we ALL need to soften the >drug war. This opiate epidemic is unprecedented in a macro >sense. And it carries much more significant secondary >problems than if it was coke/crack/speed/etc. >