In the mid-1990s, prescription of benzodiazepines shot through the roof. Xanax, Klonopin, Ambien and amphetamine like drugs were prescribed for ADHD in the US. Each one had their own distinctive story of why white people were especially suffering from the illness that those drugs treated with them. But it's important to recognize they're not distinctive to opioids. This is a story about racial capitalism more than it is a stories about opioids.
Featuring Helena Hansen, Jules Netherland, and David Herzberg on how American capitalism and its illusions of whiteness both created the opioid crisis and shaped the response to it. We are discussing their book Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America.
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