I dislike the term systemic racism because it is overused, but I think it fits this scenario perfectly. Most medical workers are not ‘racist,’ but racist stereotypes have infiltrated the thought process.

Are blacks more likely to seek drugs? It’s hard to say when you assume all black people are drug seeking. I have never seen a study that shows that but that idea is in the system.

I do ponder if that is why white people have such a high mortality rate with opioids. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306431#:~:text=The race%2Fethnicity distribution was 73%25 non-Hispanic White%2C 15%25,39.5 per 100 000 for 2018 and 2019%2C respectively.

I know the current restrictions are to lower the deaths, but I think they are stupid. I don’t want to hijack the conversation, but the current ideology only pushes people to the black market, where they end up dead.

This is one reason I support a single payer health system. We need to make sure we are not treating people with addictive drugs when we can actually fix their ailment. We also need to stop thinking addiction is a moral failing. Most people will become addicted to opioids if they are on them long enough, and even more so when we have much stronger opioids nowadays.

Alright off my soapbox.