Opiate epidemic Hitting Whites and Older Individuals Hardest
The recent opiate epidemic that has swept the United States has impacted all races and ages. However, the rate of overdoses due to opiates is highest among the white race, and those between the ages of 45-54 years of age. The Centers of Disease Control reported that by 2014, whites and Native Americans were dying at double or triple the rates of African-Americans and Latinos.
One possible explanation for this data was reported in the New York Times. They indicated that “racial stereotypes” might be one explanation for the gap. That is to say, because doctors are much more reluctant to prescribe painkillers to minority patients, worrying that they might sell them or become addicted, minority patients have been prescribed opioids less and have therefore had less of a chance to become addicted.
However, Latinos and African-Americans have not escaped the opioid epidemic unfortunately. Even though the media focuses most of its attention on how white, middle class people have been impacted by opioid prescriptions, African American opioid use and Latino opioid use have both climbed 200 and 140 percent respectively since 2010.
Also noteworthy is that heroin overdoses occur most often in individuals between 25-34 years. Opioid overdoses, however, occur most often a decade later – when people are in their late forties and early 50s. Most likely this is because younger people are more prone to become addicted to street drugs; they are at a stage in their lives where they take more risks and engage in more dangerous behaviors. People 10 years older may take opioids after an injury or a surgery, having had them prescribed by a doctor. They become addicted when they trust the opioid prescription but become addicted to its effects.
source: cdc.com