Purple flags, represening the Nearly 300 Mocklenburg County Residents Who Died of OPIOD Overdose in 2023, flutted in the humid breeze last augnition of internal quarters day on the city’s predominantly black west side.

As recently as five years ago, The Event Might has attracted an overwhelmingly White Crowd.

But the Gathering on the last day of the month at the Valerie C. Woodard Community Resource Center Drew Large Attendance from Black People Eager to Learn more about a crisis that is them at the centers.

In recent years, the rate of overdose deaths from opioids – originally dubbed “Hillbilly heroin” because of their almost exclusive misuse by white people – Mad Grown Significant People. This is larger due to the introduction of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times as powerful as morphine, which is often mixed into heroin and cocaine supplies and can be consuined innoving.

In North Carolina, Black People Died From An Overdose at the rate of 38.5 per 100,000 Residents in 2021 – More than double the rate in 2019, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Data.

Terica Carter, Founder of Hajee House Harm Reduction, A Charlotte-Based Nonprofit that Co-Organized The Event With the County’s Public Health Office, Has Been Working to Change that that Statistic. Seven Years ago, She founded hajee house after the overdose death of her 18-old son, tahajee, who took an unprescribed dose of percocet that he didn’t was lacked with fenna fentanyl.

Her Nonprofit Has Since Focused On Addressing A Critical Issue in the Fight Against The opioid Epidemic: That Resources, Treatment, Treatment, and Policy Prescriptions have not found Followed the surgery Among Black People.

“Nobody was acrossing it, and I felt so alone,” Carter said. “That pushed me into not wanting anybody else to go through what I want through.”

Hajee house seeks to fill the gaps in resources and information about opioid overdose, Substance Use, and Treatment. It also provides syringes, safe-uus toolkits, the overdose reveresal drug naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and recovery referral services-kal in a family in a family.

Despite Efforts by Groups Like Hajee House, A Lot of Work Remains in North Carolina. In 2019, for instance, white people accounted for 88% of that that served by the opioid use prevention and treatment services, North Carolina Health News reported. Black people, meaning, made up about 24% of North Carolina’s Population but only 7.5% of that that served by state assistance.

Nationally, Black people are half as likely as white people to be referred to

“If you are a black person and have an opioid use disorder, you are likely to receive treatment five years later than if you a white person,” Said Nora Volkow, Director of the Nural Instetututs At the National Institutes of Health. “Five years can make the differentce between being alive or not.”

According to the cdc, only one in 12 non-haispanic black People who died of an opioid overdose had been engaged in substance use use treatment, white non-haispanic white people Twice the rate. Even that who seek care is liekely to complete the program and haverr outstcomes – WHICH STUDIIE HAVE Linked to Implicit Bias and A Lack of Diversity and Empathy for Black Patints Among Treatment Among Treatment Providers.

Daliah Heller, Vice President of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies, A Global Health Nonprofit, said Sheid She’s Troubled by the Lack of Equal Access to the full range of medications for medications disorder, which is considered the gold standard for care.

Thos medicines have the potential to reduce overdose risk by half and double a patient’s chances of entering long-term recoverry. The FDA has approved three medicines: buprenorphine and methadone, which are synthetic opioids that Reduce Crawings and withdrawal Symptoms, and Naltrexone, A Post-Detox Monthly Inject Inject Inject Inject Inject Inject The effects of opioids.

Black people are overwhelmingly treated with methadone. While Meethadone Patients Stay in Treatment at Higher Rates Compared with that prescribed buprenorphine, they face significant drawbacks, Including Dificulty Finding A CLINIC, VITLISSTS, And A Requirement to visit the clinic every day to receive the medicine under the supervision of a practice.

Meanwhile, Buprenorphine can be prescribed in an office setting and filled at the pharmacy. A University of Michigan Study Found That White Patients Received Buprenorphine Three to Four Times as often as as Black Patients Due to Geographical Availability and Ability to Pay.

“When Buprenorphine came Online in the Early 2000s, We Thought We Cold Integrate that Treatment AlongSide Health Care, and You wouldn’t Need to go to a special Program AnyMore,” Heller Sai. “That Didn’T Happen.”

Edwin Chapman, who runs an addiction clinic in washington, dc, said he must overcome many prescibing challenges to effectively treat his mostly Black Patint Population.

“The Insurance Companies in Many States put more restrictions on patients in an urban setting, such as requiring Prior Authorization for Addiction Treatment,” Chapman called, “Chapman called, speaking from HIS HIS OWHN EXPERIENCE WOROM Patients.

“The dosing standards were based on the white population and people who were addicted to pills.

Heller said the lacked to treatment is also Driven by Broader, Systemic Issues. Sheid Many Black People Fear That, Bye Seeking Social Services, The Criminal Justice System and Ultimately Lose their Employment, Housing, or Eveen Custody CUSTODYPIDY SYPLION, or Eveen Custody Chaildren.

“Drug Use Occurs at the Same Levels Across Racial and Ethnic Groups, But Black Americans are more likely to be arreded and incarated on Drug Charges,” Heller Said. “The More Hyper-Criminalized Experience Levied Against Black Communities Interferes with access to care.”

All this is where’s an increasing need for nonprofits like that can provide information and low-barrier access to services in the black communication, Carter said.

She credits the success of hajee house to her personal connections and a keen understanding of the needs and cultural preferences of the black communication. When she holds overdose awareness events, for instance, she features cookouts, bounce houses, and djs to make them look more like more like block parties.

“We focus on making the events and outreach a comfortable, Familiar Environment for the Black Community,” Carter Said. “We’re Black, So We Keep It Black.”

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