Gyasi Ross: Drug epidemic sweeping through Native communities

Thursday, May 26, 2016  

The Longest Walk 5 from California to Washington, D.C,. is drawing attention to the drug epidemic in Indian Country. Photo from Longest Walk 5 - War on Drugs / Facebook

Addressing the drug crisis starts with knowledge and Gyasi Ross (Blackfeet / Suquamish), the editor at large for Indian Country Today, thinks a reading of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic can help tribes and even the Indian Health Service gain a better understanding of the problems facing people who are addicted to opiods:

Dreamland should be required reading for any person who deals with courts, drug addiction or IHS for your particular tribe. It’s important to understand this pill/heroin epidemic at a larger level—no, those young kids who are becoming addicted to pills are not “weak” or “stupid.” The 40-year old who lived a clean life all of their life and then lost their homes and their jobs because of a heroin addiction is not having a mid-life crisis. Maybe under normal circumstances, but this wave of addiction is not about choices. It’s about greed and capitalism and the people of all ages who get caught up are simply pawns in a much larger game that’s going on. Many (certainly not all) of these addicts were given prescriptions from a doctor who is supposed to have their best interests at heart that was monitored by an FDA that is supposed to tell the truth about harmful drugs that are on the market. Neither of those systems worked and the addicts that we see are the result of a massive and lethal system failure.

I repeat: many of the “pill heads” and heroin addicts on our reservations oftentimes did not have a choice in their addiction. It seems hard to fathom, but it makes a certain amount of sense that IHS—which already has a checkered history with Native people—or contract care doctors who do not care about Native people might not have our best interests at heart.

That is the biggest takeaway from Dreamland—it’s a great story. Absolutely. But more importantly, Dreamland will grow your empathy and hopefully help to create a plan to face a scourge that is many, many times larger and more lethal than either the crack epidemic or the meth plague.

Get the Story:
Gyasi Ross: 'Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic' is Incredibly Relevant to Native Communities (Indian Country Today 5/25)

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