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kleinbl00  ·  2078 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Overdose Deaths Reached Record Level of 72,000 in 2017, New Estimates Show

I think AIDS activists worked from the standpoint that people susceptible to AIDS were judged by those without and they shouldn't have been. Mainstreaming of AIDS coincided with the mainstreaming of homosexuality.

The Opioid epidemic comes from a standpoint of normal, everyday people who ended up addicted and much as we'd like that to be an epidemiological problem, our D.A.R.E/Just Say No/12-step culture still views it as a moral failing. After all, our entire language around addiction is in terms of strength, weakness and morality.

We made it from "gay people are going to hell" to "I actually kind of enjoyed The Birdcage" in a generation. We've made it from Reefer Madness to five different cannabis ETFs. We might make it from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to a non-shame-based addiction model but it's gonna be tough.