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Comparing the Response to Crack, Opioid Epidemics

Image: One Photo/Shutterstock.com
Image: One Photo/Shutterstock.com

Response to the opiod epidemic by law enforcement is to save addcits with a counteracting drug and push for treatment over arrest. Contrast that with crack in the 80s, when addicts did hard time and the war on drugs raged on. What's different? Some say we've learned what doesn't work. Others see race playing a factor in the response: Crack was big in black neighborhoods; heroin today kills white suburban kids. 

Ronnie Dunn, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, CSU  
Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project
Dr. Thomas Gilson, M.D., Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner  
Hon. Lauren Moore, Cleveland Municipal Court Judge, Cleveland Municipal Drug Court  
Det. Jim Larkin, Lorain County Drug Task Force  
Mark Simpson, Managing Producer for News, Ideastream  
Mary Lou Brink, Business Editor, The Plain Dealer