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While I am not against doing something about the opioid crisis in the country, I just cannot ignore something that I have noticed about it and the reaction to it.

Remember back in the 1980s when hundreds of our fellow citizens began dying of AIDS and we as a country banded together to deal with that and help those who were contracting the virus?

Remember how quickly the government was to fund research to come up with a cure and ways to help those suffering?

I don’t because it didn’t happen.

I did see firsthand that Gay doctors were coming up with combinations of drugs, the “cocktail”, to reduce the affects of AIDS and the Gay Community was organizing hospices and medical support networks while the general attitude of the country was in favor of finding places where people with AIDS could go and die alone and unseen.

Remember how we as a country banded together to help our fellow Americans who found themselves becoming addicted to Crack?

I don’t.

But I do remember that as the Black Panthers demanded what the AIDS activists had to demand, proper attention and treatment, and were establishing their own support networks, they were being condemned as radical terrorist types.

Instead of compassion for those experiencing these crises, there were appeals for isolation in one case and more punishment and police force action in the other.

Aside from h2o, online prescription viagra without organic fruit or vegetable juice is superior. After completing the period of 6 months those people http://appalachianmagazine.com/2014/03/11/appalachian-magazine-spring-2014-the-ghosts-of-mingo-county/ order generic cialis stopped to take the radio therapy but not Sildenafil citrate. They do not care about their satisfaction and that makes them cialis sale navigate here relaxed. After abducting the site manager and his family, breaking onto the depot premises and locking up the night staff working at the depot, a gang of criminals proceeded to load viagra cheap over at this drugshop over 53 million in cash into the back of their white Renault lorry, which they then used as a getaway vehicle. Both the crack and the opioid crisis have something in common; they involve drug addiction, violence, and desperation. What is different is the population being affected.

With AIDS it was Homosexuals; with crack it was primarily inner-city Blacks; while with opioids it is primarily suburban, white, middle class people. The three crises cross the lines of color, class, and location, but they each have majority numbers from the different groups.

Because the belief is that the opioid crisis affects US directly, it is getting the attention and the concern, while no one is being relegated to dying in quarantine or in shabby hospital rooms, and no one is calling for the arrest and locking up of those suffering.

The country was filled with disgust and fear of crack and AIDS, but not with concern for the people who suffered from either.

Because of the majority being affected by opioids, people and the government are calling for treatment, not jail or quarantine.

With both crack and opioids,  because that next fix is needed and there is money in supplying it, there is plenty of crime and addiction, but who is addicted and who is committing the crime this time is “US”.

I saw this in a place that relies on a strong summer tourist season where the population is very white in the off season with seasonal homes being burgled for their fencable contents. No one, however, was labeled and then ostracized because of that label. I did see a lot of sympathy for the good kids hitting the skids and support for their families who had to deal with it.

Perhaps if the next crisis hits a population that is not like the majority of the citizens of this country we will look back on the differences in how we treated different populations affected by crises, be a little embarrassed by our past biases, do the right thing, and include everyone in the “US”.

We are being told that we need to address the opioid crisis because people are dying. That is true. They were also dying before in earlier crises.

There is only one qualifyier that is making the difference this time.