In this case, it is Black and White –
Nov. 11, 2020 – Here’s some of what the research shows:
- They are disproportionately sent to jail or prison for addiction-related crimes. In the federal system, for example, the risk of incarceration for someone who uses drugs monthly and is Black is more than 7 times that of their white counterpart. (An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americansin the Criminal Justice System, Vera Institute of Justice.)
- Latino people are imprisoned at a rate that is 1.4 times the rate of whites. (The Sentencing Project: “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in State Systems.” June 14, 2016.)
- Black and Latino people are less likely than whites to get specialized treatment for addiction. (2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health.)
- Black people are less likely than whites to get the prescribed treatment medication buprenorphine, a more convenient alternative to methadone that requires minimal-to-no in-clinic, supervised administration. A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that from 2012-2015, 35 white patients got a buprenorphine prescription for every patient of another race or ethnicity who did. (“Black patients less likely to get treatment for opioid-use disorder,” Nov. 4, 2019.)
- They are also more likely to avoid seeking treatment because of fear of punitive responses and moral judgments. (The Opioid Crisis and the Black/African American Population: An Urgent Issue, April 2020.)
