Raising awareness of substance use and substance use disorder creates opportunities for the person suffering the disease and/or their loved ones to act, and creates a greater imperative for public action. On the other hand, these same reports unintentionally reinforce long-held attitudes about alcohol and drug use and abuse that create barriers to access to treatment or, worse, reinforce stereotypes that prevent the addict from seeking help.
For example, there is the story of a Native American woman introduced to fentanyl following an injury. She subsequently developed an addiction. The article includes reports of the drug cartels that supply the reservation on which the woman lived and died.
Fentanyl, a Schedule II narcotic, is increasingly popular, increasingly supplied by secondary sellers and is partially responsible for the increase in overdose deaths.
However, this report involves a young female, a woman who is an ethnic minority, from the North Dakota reservation. It creates an image of poverty. And it involves reports of drug cartels and the police department, which turns it into a “crime” story.
None of this is necessarily incorrect or problematic. However, it reinforces stereotypes about young, ethnic, poor people and drug cartels. But the truth is that a majority of drug use, abuse and addiction in America involves a much broader portion of the American public.
Does this type of “news” create a barrier to an effective, broader approach to addiction recovery?
And consider the use of drugs among the working population. Analysis suggests that if a normalized sample of 100 employees on an average workday were tested, 44 of them would be at risk of failing that random drug test.
Given this, the behavior in the workplace, and knowing that 27 million Americans are suffering from substance use disorder, it is highly unlikely that young, minority, poor females represent the majority of substance use, abuse and addiction in America.
“Most people struggling with addiction live in a home, have a job and have at least some level of education. What causes or leads someone to be addicted or use drugs has more to do with their genetics, environmental influences, mental health, education, stress and parental substance abuse.”
Drug and alcohol use, abuse, and addiction are not only on the streets but in your neighborhood, in your church/synagogue/mosque, in your school, in your workplace and in your home. The first step in an effective national approach is admitting the true problem.