From K2 and bath salts to crack pipes to rainbow fentanyl, drug policy reformers are continually combating drug panics. While the particular subject of drug scares change, key features remain the same from panic to panic: exaggerated fears about a new substance or drug use modality, disregard for research, and association of the subject with a particular (often marginalised) group. Dr. Craig Reinarman will explain how, historically, drug panics have been deployed to both individualise structural problems and increase stigma towards and criminalisation of people who use drugs. Tana Geneva will discuss the media’s role in amplifying drug scares and the media’s potential to correct misinformation. We will also discuss the role of drug researchers in responding to drug panics.

D﻿r. Craig Reinarman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. He is the co-author of 

Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice

Tana Ganeva is a reporter covering criminal justice, drug policy, immigration, and politics. She's written for the Washington Post, RollingStone.com, Glamour, Gothamist, Vice, the Appeal, Teen Vogue, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The role of researchers and media in responding to drug panics

Even before overdose deaths in the United States spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic—rising from 68,000 in 2018 to more than 107,000 in 2021—the US had twice the overdose mortality rate of any other country. Low-income White communities were hit hardest early in the current overdose surge. However, in 2020, the overdose death rate of Black individuals overtook that of White individuals and is now nearly 20% higher, while American Indians/Alaska Natives have the highest overdose mortality rates of any group. Overdose prevention has become a key racial justice issue. The predominant public health approach in the US focuses on individual-level risk factors, while public policy and funding has centred on drug-law enforcement, abstinence-based recovery, and biomedicalised approaches that emphasise the development and delivery of medications. Yet the epidemiologic patterns of overdoses are better explained by the social-structural forces that underlie poor access to education, employment, social services, adequate housing and healthcare, as well as racist policing.

 Webinar, a panel of expert speakers will highlight the need to shift away from a narrow focus on individualised overdose risk to broader efforts addressing the pathologies of social and political systems that drive overdose. This broader effort must include community mobilisation and involvement, and strengthening harm reduction programs. Speakers include a leading drug-policy researcher in France, where stronger social safety nets, universal health care, and evidence-baded harm reduction practices have been better able to protect people who use drugs, and US-based leaders in harm reduction and community mobilisation. Dr Helena Hansen, the preeminent US expert on the intersection of racism and the opioid epidemic, will serve as moderator. The webinar will include an audience Q&A session.


Professor and interim Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA


Behavioural Health Administration
Department of Human Services, State of Colorado


Sociologist
Inserm, French National Institute of Health and Medical Research


Activist, National Survivors Union,
PhD Candidate in Geography and Urban Studies, Temple University

Drug policy and racism

, moved on Friday to end sentencing disparities that have imposed different penalties for different forms of cocaine and worsened racial inequity in the US justice system.

For decades, federal law has imposed harsher sentences for crack cocaine even though it isn’t scientifically different from powder cocaine, creating “unwarranted racial disparities”, Garland wrote in a memo. “They are two forms of the same drug, with powder readily convertible into crack cocaine.”

With changes to the law stalled in Congress, Garland instructed prosecutors in non-violent, low-level cases to file charges that avoid the mandatory minimum sentences that are triggered for smaller amounts of rock cocaine.

Civil rights leaders and criminal justice reform advocates applauded the changes, though they said the changes would not be permanent without action from Congress.

US Attorney General moves to end crack cocaine sentencing disparities

There is a growing recognition that our society must address systemic racism, mass criminalization and violent policing with alternative responses to crises in communities. Reform advocates have increasingly proposed that social workers, equipped with the skills and training to de-escalate tensions and respond to mental health and substance use crises, should work in teams alongside police officers. Despite broad support by community stakeholders, law enforcement, and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), this approach remains fraught if we do not critically examine our role as agents of social control in such systems. A clear case study is the War on Drugs, wherein social workers have assumed the role of frontline enforcers through our employment in the criminal legal and child welfare systems, health care, and coercive drug treatment programs. The harsh and punitive laws stemming from the War on Drugs have contributed to the mass criminalization of people who use drugs, devastated communities, separated families, and so much more. Our focus should shift towards upstream advocacy for policies to reduce the scope of the criminal legal system altogether. We propose suggestions to re-envision social work’s role in less punitive and carceral responses.

Social workers as potential agents for drug policy reform

The war on drugs is an instrument of racism, which incites violence and hinders democratic development in Brazil. Watch our new short documentary to find out how a black civil society organization in Brazil, Iniciativa Negra, takes up the fight against this war on people.

The Black Initiative for a New Drug Policy (INNPD, 

Iniciativa Negra Por Uma Nova Política sobre Drogas

) is a black civil society organisation in Brazil which addresses the importance of drug policies on the lives of black people. The majority of the population of Brazil is black (around 53%), but coming from a racist historical process of enslavement, they were never allowed the same level of political-economic and social equality as the white population. The War on Drugs became the tool used to keep it that way. As 

, co-founder of Iniciativa Negra puts it:

Today, the War on Drugs feeds the racist system that maintains the privileges of the white population, of whiteness, over the black population in Brazil, therefore keeping power concentrated in the hands of this whiteness, preventing the mobility of the black population to access and share these spaces of power.

THE BLACK INITIATIVE: Fighting Brazil’s racist drug war

Women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people who use drugs have been adversely affected by the spread of COVID-19. The introduction of swift executive orders and restrictions on movement by national governments may have contributed significantly to multiple challenges women have faced. In Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa, women experienced victimisation and violent treatment from family, intimate partners and law enforcement. Indigenous people suffered stigma from the community and, together with women who use drugs, experienced discrimination, harassment and exploitation by the police and healthcare workers. Other challenges affecting the health and rights of women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people who use drugs include limited access to quality health and social services, experiences of homelessness and the loss of social bonds and food security.

Availability and accessibility of harm reduction services for women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people are hindered notably by structural violence and stigma that result from patriarchal social norms and attitudes compounded by other identities such as poverty, class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality as well as a lack of harm reduction services attuned to their needs. This is apparent in the greater stigma faced by women who use drugs compared with men.

Many women, LGBTQI+ people and ethnic minority communities were isolated during the pandemic and did not access HIV and harm reduction services due to lockdown restrictions and transport difficulties. During lockdown, many outreach services were paused and activities that kept women connected were significantly halted. Worse still, paucity of harm reduction funding limited opportunities for service adaptations to meet the needs of women.

Generally, people who use drugs had minimal access to health services owing to healthcare worker shortages and limited contact with clients during the pandemic. This was particularly true for women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people as specific services for these demographics are limited and they are often not prioritised in harm reduction programming. Moreover, a lack of trust in healthcare workers and experiences of structural stigma and racism increased during COVID-19.These factors were compounded by changes in the drug supply, with the proliferation of toxic, illicit drugs together with limited access to drug checking, supervised consumption, in-person treatment and longer periods of isolation which have led to higher incidences of drug overdose and overdose-related deaths.

Nevertheless, the pandemic provided a window of opportunity for positive change as many services initiated rapid adaptations such as increased peer-led

outreach, provision of food, temporary shelters, personal protective equipment (PPE), information sharing and peer support. Community and civil society demonstrated strong leadership and a duty of care through advocacy which mitigated the negative outcomes for women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people.

Women, Ethnic Minority Groups and Indigenous people who use drugs faced multiple barriers to services

Women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people who use drugs are faced with many barriers to accessing harm reduction services such as stigma, gender-based and structural violence, criminalisation, incarceration and limited gender-responsive and gender-affirming services. The latest global systematic review of the epidemiology of people who inject drugs shows that there are approximately 2.8 million women who inject drugs globally,[19,20] and research indicates that more women than men are at greater infection risk from both HIV and viral hepatitis, with the highest burden seen in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

COVID-19 created conditions which increased existing barriers. Notably, lockdown expanded health, political and socioeconomic disparities. Women who use drugs are particularly vulnerable due to criminalisation and stigma.[24] A global survey by the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD) reported women who use drugs faced multiple challenges to health and support services with only 15% having access to women-specific programmes such as sexual and reproductive health services and childcare. Further studies indicate that emergency powers were disproportionately used by governments and law enforcement meting out violence towards Indigenous, Black and Brown people, women who use drugs, sex workers, people experiencing mental health issues, and trans people. Women and Indigenous people who use drugs endured violent treatment in particular from intimate partners and law enforcement mostly due to homelessness and the need to obtain drugs.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, Black and Brown people were not prioritised for care during the pandemic and were 8-10 times more at risk of being affected by COVID-19 than the white majority. The syndemic of COVID-19 and the opioid crises in these countries has also increased the harms experienced by women, ethnic minority groups and Indigenous people who use drugs, with limited access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), naloxone, drug checking, supervised consumption, sterile syringes, methadone and psychosocial support, further demonstrating the effect of COVID-19 on expanding health disparities.

The impact on women, Indigenous people and migrants in the Middle East and North Africa has been disparate. In Aden (Yemen) for example, the government and civil society did not provide access to COVID-19 prevention and treatment for people who use drugs.

The crisis further exacerbated the vulnerabilities of Indigenous women and ethnic minorities, particularly those living in remote hard-to-reach locations, limiting access to harm reduction services. Low coverage heightened the difficulties in accessing safe and regular treatment. These factors reinforced the harms already faced, further driving many women underground. Furthermore, the global lockdown shifted the treatment landscape considerably. Low-threshold services, including services led by peers, reported staff absences due to illness and burnout, and increased homelessness and isolation among clients.

Impact of service disruptions on women, ethnic minorities and Indigenous people

A new report released today says Māori are three times more likey to die from a drug and alcohol overdose and highlights the need for a by Māori for Māori policy approach.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation report charts the non-intentional overdose deaths in Aotearoa between 2017 and 2021.

The analysis of coronial data shows an increase in fatal overdoses, which is not accounted for by the population growth over this period.

Māori Public Health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora says the NZ Drug Foundation report highlights concerning outcomes for Māori that must be proactively addressed in any policy response or risk worsening inequities.

"We commend the NZ Drug Foundation for raising awareness of these issues and reporting on key ethnicity data which show our people are three times more likely to die of an overdose than non-Māori," Hapai CEO Selah Hart said.

Aotearoa / New Zealand: Māori three times more likely to die from drug overdose, report reveals

 21 October 2022 / 9:00 am - 11:00 am EDT

On the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and following the presentation of 

, to UNGA, the Lancet Medical Journal and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown University will be announcing their 

Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health

. This three-year commission will bring together experts from across the globe to uncover and promote anti-racist strategies and actions to reduce barriers to health and wellbeing facing communities on the basis of race, ethnicity, tribe, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, or religion.

We invite you to join us Friday, October 21, 2022 from 9:00 – 10:30 AM EST for a panel discussion on accurately diagnosing the problem of racism in global health.

The work of the commission is rooted in the recognition that racism, rather than race, creates and maintains unjust and avoidable health inequities in countries around the world. Racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes are increasingly recognized worldwide, and the commission starts from the premise that the impact of racism inside and outside the health sector is a driver of health inequity that has not been sufficiently understood and addressed as a phenomenon that spans borders.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted the urgency of addressing racism directly when it comes to health,” said Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, co-chair of the commission. “It has also raised critical questions about the continuing colonial relationships undergirding global health efforts. Now is the time to confront this reality and accept that too little progress has been achieved to reduce discrimination in health.”

To attend this event virtually or in-person at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City (320 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017), please register 

Advancing health equity: Time to address racism and structural discrimination in global health

The War on Drugs has failed in its stated goal of reducing drug use and sale and has instead resulted in a devastating trail of trauma, pain, and suffering, for families, and communities, with communities of colour facing the harshest impact.

Globally, Black Brown and Indigenous people are disproportionately targeted for drug law enforcement and face discrimination across the criminal justice system.

The War on Drugs has provided the architecture, in many ways, within which racist and colonialist laws, policies and practices can operate. Our work to decolonise drug policy seeks to raise awareness of the racism and colonialism underlying international drug control, and its impact on the health and human rights of individuals and communities in order to begin to dismantle these destructive policies.

This conversation between Imani Mason Jordan, Gracie Bradley and Shanice McBean took place via Zoom on Wednesday 8th

Decolonising drug policy: British policing, the war on drugs, and the everyday impacts of colonialism

," co-hosted by Release and Harm Reduction International.

is an interdisciplinary writer, artist, editor and facilitator.

is an activist, campaigner and writer and also the ex-director of

is an anti-racist organizer who has done, loads of wonderful work with

Racial justice