Do Democrats Care About The Overdose Crisis?
“Let justice roll down like waters.”
Amos 5:24
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
A recent Axios-Ipsos poll asked what Americans thought was the #1 threat to public health.
Opioids/fentanyl came in at number one with 26% of respondents naming it the top issue.
What is striking, however, is the dramatic partisan divide. Only 17% of Democrats answered opioids/fentanyl while 37% of Republicans answered the same.
What does this mean? Probably a lot of different things. (Feel free to email us with your thoughts.)
To quote my old boss, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, it seems to be a classic case of when “the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn’t get it.”
But this is also an area where those partisan categories don’t quite fit.
There are two issues that rise to the surface for me in the old Left vs Right framework: proximity and moral narrative.
First, let's look at proximity. Or, why the Left doesn’t get it.
While it is notable how widespread the overdose crisis is, not every community is hit equally.
When looking at racial demographics, Indigenous and Black communities have been hit the hardest.
When looking at a county level, Republican counties have higher death rates than Democratic counties.
It isn’t surprising that the poll also found, “People with a high school education or less are, by a three-to-one margin, more concerned with opioids over obesity compared to those with a college degree, who see obesity as the bigger issue.”
This means college-educated, middle-class, white professionals living in Democratic counties are some of the least connected to the overdose crisis. They also happen to be a core constituency for Democrats and (probably) over represented in media and government.
It’s a pretty good case for saying “the Left” just doesn’t get it.
Second, is moral narrative. Or, why the Right gets it wrong.
In Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice, Craig Reinarman and Harry Levine demonstrated that public concern about crime and crack cocaine didn’t track trends in drug use or crime. Instead, public concern followed media coverage and media coverage went in waves tied to election cycles.
In the 80’s and 90’s, politicians created a narrative of moral decay that could only be stopped with a campaign for “law and order.”
During the 2022 midterm elections, Republican leadership created a new narrative of the “fentanyl border crisis.”
Instead of moral decay from within, it was a message of threat from the without.
This establishes a moral narrative of Americans as the innocent victims of an evil invading force that must be stopped.
And this is a good case for why the Right gets it wrong.
The good news is that while some of the Right gets it wrong and some of the Left doesn’t get it, the exceptions are growing.
Christina Dent, a conservative Christian, leads End it For Good, a non-profit in Mississippi committed to increasing public health and safety by ending the “War on Drugs.”
Rev. Erica Poellet is a progressive faith leader who runs Faith in Harm Reduction committed to engaging all people of faith in working together with people who use drugs to create a more just world.
It can be frustrating to see those who still don’t understand the scope and severity of the crisis. It is concerning when there are those who do understand but support policies that will only make the situation worse.
But there is hope. And awareness is growing. In the past month, this newsletter has grown by over 25%. We are glad you are here and keep spreading the word!
Timothy McMahan King
Senior Fellow, CNDP
Research and roundup compiled by Cassidy Willard, Research Associate
Australia Moves Forward On Psychedelic Access
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration recently approved a request to reschedule psilocybin and MDMA under that country’s drug-classification scheme, making Australia the first country in the world to recognize the psychedelic drugs as medicines. Effective July 1, 2023, the TGA will add psilocybin and MDMA to Schedule 8 of Australia’s list of Controlled Drugs, permitting qualified psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.
The decision was largely based on the research and data being produced under current FDA trials in the United States. Hopefully, these steps will continue to put pressure on policy makers in the United States to acknowledge that the Schedule 1 classification in the United States has always been based on a lie.
Highlighting the Work of Overdose Prevention Centers
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration recently approved a request to reschedule psilocybin and MDMA under that country’s drug-classification scheme, making Australia the first country in the world to recognize the psychedelic drugs as medicines. Effective July 1, 2023, the TGA will add psilocybin and MDMA to Schedule 8 of Australia’s list of Controlled Drugs, permitting qualified psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.
The decision was largely based on the research and data being produced under current FDA trials in the United States. Hopefully, these steps will continue to put pressure on policy makers in the United States to acknowledge that the Schedule 1 classification in the United States has always been based on a lie.
National Push to Legalize Fentanyl Test Strips
Rev. Sharp was interviewed by the Epoch Times on the rising focus on harm reduction.
Rev. Alexander Sharp, founder of Clergy for New Drug Policy, said he was “heartened by the depth of the response” that is currently happening with regard to this crisis.
“So often what you get is the reaction that you can’t do anything because it falls under the category of harm reduction,” Sharp told The Epoch Times, saying that “while it appears to be enabling” the use of drugs, “that concept is horribly misguided.”
God and Pot
Timothy McMahan King was interviewed for an article at Religion Unplugged on the upcoming vote in Oklahoma on adult-use cannabis:
Timothy McMahan King...echoed Tilley’s perspective on criminal justice reform.
“You can be concerned about the effects of drugs in society,” said King, an evangelical-turned-Episcopalian who wrote the book “Addiction Nation” and a Christianity Today cover story on his battle with opioid addiction.
“But if you pursue a punitive path, you might actually be … creating more harm from drugs,” he added, “than if we go this path that focuses on regulation, education and treating drug use as a public health issue, not a criminal one.”