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Black Americans saw the greatest increase in drug mortality rates in 2020 compared to whites, for the first time since 1999, according to a recent study. Dr. Helen Hansen, a professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and co-author of the study, spoke to Yahoo News about the various factors due to systemic racial and socioeconomic inequalities and policies that have played a significant role in the study.

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Black Americans saw the greatest increase in drug mortality rates in 2020 compared to whites, the first time that has happened since 1999, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Dr. Helen Hansen, a professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and co-author of the study, spoke to Yahoo News about the various factors that have played a significant role.

For the past 20 years, the media has focused on the high death rate among white Americans. There has been a certain shock and surprise because of all of the stereotypes about the racial identity of people who are addicted in this country.

The data was compiled from the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics. The overdose death rates went up 40% since COVID. Drug overdose death rates were calculated by race and ethnicity from 1999 to 2020. overdose deaths among black people increased from 24.7% to 36.8% in 2019. The rate was higher for white people. American Indian or Alaskan Natives had the highest rate of overdose deaths in 2020, with 41.4 deaths per 100,000.

More than 15,200 black men died of drug overdoses in 2020, more than double the number in the previous year. The death rate among black men increased by 213% from 2015, when they were less likely to die from overdoses than white men and Native American and Alaskan Native men. Mortality rates from drug overdoses among men in every other major racial or ethnic group have risen at a slower pace.

Between 2015 and 2020 the overdose death rate for Black women has increased by 144%. The percentage increases among women in every other racial or ethnic group is the same.

A study led by Friedman and co-authored by Hansen found that overdose deaths among people of high school age greatly accelerated under COVID.

The results of the study show that the pandemic has worsened a wide range of health, social, and economic outcomes among racial and ethnic minorities.

As the world became more isolated, people used drugs alone more often.

COVID limited peoples access to drug treatment and regular health care because they couldn't see people who might have supported them in recovery.

Fentanyl is a synthetic drug that Mexican drug traffickers mix into many street drugs and smuggle into the U.S. According to the Washington Post, the majority of overdose deaths in D.C. involve Fentanyl.

Fentanyl citrate shown in pill and injectable forms prescribed by doctors.
Fentanyl citrate in various forms prescribed by doctors. Used illegally, it can overdose and death. (Getty Images)

Synthetic opioids are so potent that they are used by drug traffickers. Heroin is larger. If you need a hundred times as much heroin to get the same effect, you can get it across borders and it is easier to smuggle in the small amounts of the ultrapotent synthetic opioids.

The Reagan administration's war on drugs in the 1980s led to excessively harsh sentencing requirements and mass incarceration of Black people, according to a case supported by well-established studies. This phenomenon produced a profound and equal outcome for communities of color and is a huge overdose risk factor after release.

Black men are six times more likely to serve time than white men in the U.S. She said that Black women are being imprisoned at higher rates than white women.

People trying to reenter society have to overcome barriers that can lead to overdose deaths among Black Americans.

Hands of man with money buying dose of cocaine or heroine from a dealer.
A drug user buying a dose from a drug dealer. (Getty Images)

You probably don't know who is selling to you because you have lost your contact on the street. If you want to stop using opioids, you are vulnerable to relapsing because you are under tremendous social pressure. You are not going to have access to harm reduction at the same rates, such as the Naloxone universal kit, if you do not have health insurance or access to drug treatment.

The pharmaceutical companies marketed prescription drugs to white Americans in order to change the face of the crisis.

Raccial assumptions about who was at risk of addiction led to the deregulation of products like OxyContin and sister products.

The shift created two tiers in the country, a criminalized tier and a medicalized tier, which gave white people more access to. Mass incarceration on drug charges remained intact and Black and brown Americans continued to bear the brunt of the criminalization of drugs during this period.

The easiest way to overcome challenges to reenter society is to end our addiction to mass incarceration of non-violent offenders and stop taking people away from society, according to the district attorney of Nashville, Tennessee.

Buprenorphine, a drug that reduces withdrawal symptoms and cravings, is one of the effective treatments for substance use disorder. In the Black community, there are not many prescriptions for the drug. Black communities are more likely to have methadone.

Drug policymakers began to observe a correlation between overdose deaths in blue-collar white communities and deindustrialization, which left people without jobs.

These overdoses are deaths of despair, and they are calling for economic development in those communities. The fact that members of the Black community have been victims of death of despair has caused various health groups to take notice.

In order to be truly successful in preventing and reducing drug overdose deaths, especially among those hardest hit, we must emphasize the importance of primary prevention.

According to a study by Friedman in the American Journal of Public Health, the state of Tennessee saw an increase of 44% in overdose deaths compared with the year before, making it the state's deadliest year ever. $4.70 is saved for every dollar the state spends on prevention. More than $20 is saved in some local counties.

The conservative world of academic medicine has begun to embrace terms such as structural racism in its articles. She hopes that the conversation about substance use disorder can be looked at from a different perspective.

We are going to have to look at health reform and economic development. We are being forced to look at the racial divide in our country, as well as mass incarceration, which has largely been driven by drug war policies. She said that this is a good time to start to unpack the overdose problem and other problems in terms of racial equity.

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