text: It's awful. A beloved cousin of mine died last Winter, leaving a husband and daughter who are also struggling.  And even so, I've got to note the recent shift in tone with respect to drug abuse. In the '80s and '90s it was all about the moral depravity of those caught up in the crack crisis. I don't recall there being much attention paid to the economic and social struggles of those afflicted. Instead, we changed our laws so we could charge and sentence mentally retarded children as adults, built prisons for profit, and militarized the policing of suffering neighborhoods. 
  
  I'm glad there's a general will to see people caught up in opioid addiction as human beings. But I am saddened to think that they are being extended that consideration primarily because so many of them are White (USA Today reports it at 90%) I will celebrate more heartily when that  same compassion and sense societal responsibility is brought to bear on  problems afflicting communities of color.