Like slave masters of the past, U.S. rulers seem to draw sadistic pleasure on seeing poor blacks intoxicated. Nearly 85 percent fatalities in the nation’s capital are black Children of a Lesser God.
FEB 27, 2024
The brutal face of American racism becomes most evident when blacks seek recovery from drugs and alcohol in the capital of the United States.
Under slavery, the slave masters used to hold drinking contests between their slaves for enjoyment. As a reminiscent of slavery, white rulers have consciously left out treatment opportunities for the blacks, it seems.
At least one person dies every 11 hours due to drugs and alcohol in the nation’s capital— its most magnificent buildings built by unpaid black sweat and tears—; one out of every four Washingtonian has an alcohol use disorder (AUD) commonly called alcoholism; and one out of every eight Washingtonian has a substance use disorder (SUD) or drug addiction.
Most of the victims are blacks. Strangely, treatment facilities are almost none existent. It’s obvious the official mantra is the more melanin in your skin, the less the chance of a treatment you should get.
Denying statehood to District of Columbia is one thing, Blacks are being systematically pushed out of the nation’s capital for more than four decades now. According to “Washington DC: Our Changing City” in1980, 70 percent of DC's population was black; that share fell to 61 percent in 2000 and 51 percent by 2010. The black population declined in 14 of 39 neighborhood clusters from 2000 to 2010.
“We currently have250+ SUD beds that may vary on any given day based on utilization needs,” said Camil V. Douthit, Ph.D. Communications Director for the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH).
“We currently have250+ SUD beds that may vary on any given day based on utilization needs,” said Camil V. Douthit, Ph.D. Communications Director for the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH). However, folks at the DBH-run walk-in center for treatment called Arc disputed that figure. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one insider asked, “Where are you getting that number from? We know it’s very low.”
According to DC Health as of June 2021, one in 10 District residents suffer from an alcohol use disorder, twice the regional and national average; one in 8 District residents suffer from a substance use disorder, nearly twice the regional and national average; and opioid overdoses in DC nearly doubled since 2018 with 411 people dying in 2020.
The situation worsened in 2023. The GW Hatchet reported that the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner recorded 427 overdose deaths in the District in the first 10 months of 2023. It said “Experts said the increased prevalence of fentanyl in D.C.’s drug supply and a lack of addiction treatment resources have driven the rising opioid-related deaths in the District.”
The GW Hatchet report said data shows Wards 7 and 8 sustained 60 and 65 overdose deaths in 2023, respectively. Black individuals made up 85 percent of overdose deaths, in line with the previous six years, despite the group accounting for only 45 percent of the District’s total population, according to the report.
According to Scientific American, research shows that Black people have a harder time getting into treatment programs than white people do, and Black people are less likely to be prescribed the gold standard medications for substance use therapy. “If you are a Black person and have an opioid use disorder, you are likely to receive treatment five years later than if you’re a white person,” says Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. “Treatments are extraordinarily useful in terms of preventing overdose death so you can actually recover. Five years can make the difference between being alive or not.”
Hispanics situation ugly too
The situation with Hispanics, who form at least 11 percent of D.C population is also quite ugly, according to an NBC report. The reports said fatalities from overdoses have risen dramatically when fentanyl is mixed with other drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine, which are more prevalent among Latinos than are heroin or prescription painkillers. The study has been co-authored by Magdalena Cerdá, professor and director at the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at NYU Langone.
Between 2007 and 2019, fatal overdoses among Latinos from opioids mixed with cocaine rose 729%, and when mixed with methamphetamines, they have risen 4,600%. “There is a lot of product in all drugs at the moment, except for cannabis, which is contaminated with fentanyl,” NBC cited Professor Cerdá as saying.
The NBC report further states while drug overdose deaths among people from all races and ethnicities increased by 54.5% from 2019 to 2020, it increased by 119.7% among Latinos.
However, the number of beds are few and far between in Washington D.C.
Justin Feltman, Communications & Outreach Coordinator at the Samaritan Inns said, “…. we have a total of 70 treatment beds: 32 for women and 38 for men. Length of stay is not determined by Samaritan Inns and is based on medical necessity.”
Feltman added, “We are finding the average stay is about 2-2.5 months. We do not provide SUD services to anyone under 21.”
Jerome Bates of the Federal City Recovery said they had 70 patients at their various facilities Monday and could accommodate another six. He added they could accommodate up to 125 patients with additional staffing.
A white journalist friend asked: “Did you ask the mayor or the head of the DC Dept. of Health, both black women?” (About lack of drug rehabs). I had no answer.
One medic involved in treating Blacks for opioid in Washington DC for a quarter century now, Dr. Edwin Chapman, says, “DC’s nation leading per capita drug overdose death rate is just one small barometric measure of Gabor Mate’s “Myth of Normal” with predictable systemwide dysfunction including unremitting maternal and perinatal deaths among the Eastside Black and poor, rising adolescent crime with mindless carjackings, increasing drug related gangs and murder, grocery robberies targeting Colgate toothpaste-Tide-Advil, and businesses determinately exiting the city.”
Dr. Chapman said only the voters in DC or a miraculous (non-MAGA, non-Trump) federal takeover can solve these problems emanating from years of exploitative capitalistic economic inequalities, local DINO (Democrat In Name Only) government incompetence, and billionaire greed (the increasing media control and suppression of truth by our American Oligarchs).
What the black medic is saying was quite right judging by how the White liberal but Pentagon and Deep State controlled media censored the suicide of Aaron Bushnell outside the Israel embassy.
Intriguingly, while alcohol use among African Americans was less prevalence than other groups, the negative impact on blacks when they become an alcoholic was much more severe because of the racism in U.S. society. “There appears to be one particular group of African Americans, low-income African American men, who are at the highest risk for alcoholism and related problems. We theorize that this effect is due to the complex interaction of residential discrimination, racism, age of drinking, and lack of available standard life reinforcers (e.g., stable employment and financial stability),” according to a well researched report in the National Library of Medicine.
Denial of treatment opportunity to Blacks is a reality. I am well aware of this fact as I work as a Peer Recovery Coach in Prince George’s county, in the suburbs of Washington D.C. In one case a homeless young black woman from Washington D.C. was turned away from the gates of a treatment program in Southern Maryland without justification. In another case a homeless black male patient was denied admission at a facility on the Eastern Shore on the basis of his past record.
In the predominantly black county of Prince George’s itself, in the last half of the last year at least two hospitals cut down the peer recovery positions in the name of austerity though these positions save black and Hispanic lives in addition to the poorest among poor Caucasians. The two hospitals partially restored those jobs only upon Maryland state intervention.
Visionaries who Opposed Intoxication
We can not stagger to freedom. — Frederick Douglass
Two visionaries who defeated their own addiction and became staunch proponents of Black sobriety were Frederick Douglass and Malcom X, according to Chicago-based Mark Sanders.
Self-taught scholar Frederick Douglass said, “When the slave was drunk the slaveholder had no fear that he would plan an insurrection, or that he would escape to the North. It was the sober, thoughtful slave who was dangerous and needed the vigilance of his master to keep him a slave.”
The visionary black statesman famously said we can not stagger to freedom.
According to Sanders, founder of the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery, “Frederick Douglass was the first prominent American to recover from alcohol use disorder (White, 2014). Douglass's alcoholism was triggered by the trauma he endured in slavery.”
Speaking on his own alcohol use, Douglass stated, "I used to drink. I found in me all those characteristics leading to drunkenness." He went on to state, "I have had some experience with intemperance. I knew what it was like to drink with all the ardor of a drunk. Some of the slaves were not able to drink their share. I was able to drink my own and theirs too. (Douglass,1846)."
Sanders writes like Douglass, Malcolm X experienced trauma in childhood, which proceeded his substance use disorder. In his youth, Malcolm grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He grew up in an environment of race riots and lynchings. His father was killed by the Klu Klux Klan, and his mother was placed in an asylum. Leaving a young Malcolm and his sibling to be placed in the child welfare system (Payne and Payne, 2020).
Sanders says both Frederick Douglass was one of the founders of The Black Temperance movement. Malcolm fought for civil rights and started a program he called "Fishing For The Dead." The goal of this program was outreach to incarcerated African Americans to help them with recovery, employment, and to avoid future incarcerations (Haley, 1999).
According to Sanders the recovery story of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X offer an important lessons that many African Americans with substance use disorders have legacies of historical and current trauma that include slavery, lynchings, mass incarceration, police brutality, high unemployment, and community violence.
Open Mic for Anacostia
To address this issue, the Open Mic for Anacostia is holding a community meeting on Friday at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library in the historic Anacostia district, home of Frederick Douglass during his last two decades.
In addition to the general public, the meeting is drawing black medics, intellectuals and all those who are passionate not only about their personal recovery but also of the community as a whole.
Open and honest sharing of stories take place at the Open Mic for Anacostia which addresses a major social issue in the nation’s capital on the first Friday of every month.
Free tickets of the event are available here.
(Any questions? Contact the writer on X: @iamanacostia Or email iamanacostia@yahoo.com)
We can not stagger to freedom. — Frederick Douglass
Two visionaries who defeated their own addiction and became staunch proponents of Black sobriety were Frederick Douglass and Malcom X, according to Chicago-based Mark Sanders.
Self-taught scholar Frederick Douglass said, “When the slave was drunk the slaveholder had no fear that he would plan an insurrection, or that he would escape to the North. It was the sober, thoughtful slave who was dangerous and needed the vigilance of his master to keep him a slave.”
The visionary black statesman famously said we can not stagger to freedom.
According to Sanders, founder of the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery, “Frederick Douglass was the first prominent American to recover from alcohol use disorder (White, 2014). Douglass's alcoholism was triggered by the trauma he endured in slavery.”
Speaking on his own alcohol use, Douglass stated, "I used to drink. I found in me all those characteristics leading to drunkenness." He went on to state, "I have had some experience with intemperance. I knew what it was like to drink with all the ardor of a drunk. Some of the slaves were not able to drink their share. I was able to drink my own and theirs too. (Douglass,1846)."