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The solution was to partner with wealthy Nicaraguans who were known to be involved in drug distribution, and use the money to supply weapons to fight the communist Sandinistas. The U.S. was complicit with the drug trade to allow for the influx of money lost after the Iran-Contra Scandal.

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Race, the crack epidemic and the effect on today's opioid crisis - Chicago Tribune

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Race, the crack epidemic and the effect on today's opioid crisis - Chicago Tribune

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It is difficult to come up with a reasonable argument against declaring a state of national emergency to stop 142 Americans from dying every day from illegal drugs. But let's be honest about what we're dealing with here.

We're talking about junkies. Or that's how they would be described if they were black.

I remember another drug epidemic that began in the 1980s. Back then, we weren't so sensitive about what we called people who used crack cocaine. Families were torn apart at that time, too. Lives were cut short and a wealth of potential was lost on a generation of African-American youths.

But no one seemed to care about those urban "crackheads." Unlike the heroin addicts creating today's opioid epidemic - which has had a disproportionate impact on white suburbanites and rural areas - black crack addicts were dispensable. To many politicians, they belonged in jail.

So in 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act establishing, for the first time, mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of having specific amounts of cocaine. The sentences, however, were much tougher for crack cocaine than powder cocaine cases - which disproportionately affected African-Americans.

Now, however, even tough-on-crime Republicans are pushing a more sympathetic approach to handling those with drug addiction, highlighted by President Donald Trump's recent executive action.

In the 1980s, instead of pouring resources into counseling and other forms of treatment, America chose to tamp down on crime. Officials thought they could arrest their way out of the crack cocaine crisis and it would go away.

In the end, that approach had as much of an adverse impact on African-American families as crack did.

Hundreds of thousands of African-Americans across the country ended up with prison records because of minor drug violations - a legacy that continues to contribute to the decay of poor, urban communities.

That was a bad decision - and not just for the black communities devastated by crack addiction. It also was a missed opportunity for policymakers to figure out how to best fight a drug crisis that sooner or later was bound to leave the ghettos and wind up where more affluent people live.

Thirty years ago, someone should have realized it was only a matter of time before some illegal substance, whether crack or heroin or methamphetamine, would find its way to mainstream America. No particular group of people is immune to drug abuse.

While environment often plays a role in addiction, this latest crisis has taught us that poverty isn't the only factor. Addiction has no racial or economic boundaries.

So if America had shown less contempt and more compassion for crack addicts, we'd be way ahead of the game now in dealing with this scourge of opioid addiction.

If crack addiction had been treated like a national crisis rather than a neighborhood vice, we'd have a better understanding today of how drugs spread through populations.

We would know more about which treatments work and why some have a longer impact than others. Perhaps we might have even developed scientific methods that would help prevent drug addiction in the first place. Who knows what we could have come up with as a nation if we had put our heads together.

But we threw away that opportunity, and now we are starting from scratch.

White suburbanites are lobbying their state officials to help them solve a problem that is ruining young people's lives. They are holding rallies on statehouse lawns, urging elected officials to treat their addicted children with dignity - something that young people addicted to crack never received.

State legislators, governors, members of Congress and even the president are paying attention.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who led a White House commission focused on addressing opioid addiction, recently issued a report to Congress that gives us some insight into why this particular epidemic is so urgent.

Officials must address this, he said, to "awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will."

Too bad it took three decades to realize that.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com Twitter @dahleeng

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Race, the crack epidemic and the effect on today's opioid crisis

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It is difficult to come up with a reasonable argument against declaring a state of national emergency to stop 142 Americans from dying every day from illegal drugs. But let's be honest about what we're dealing with here. We're talking about junkies. Or that's how they would be described if they were black.

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Legal marijuana could help offset opioid epidemic - CNN

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Legal marijuana could help offset opioid epidemic - CNN

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legal marijuana could help offset opioid epidemic - cnn

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Legal marijuana could help offset opioid epidemic

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States with medical marijuana had 2.21 million fewer daily doses of opioids prescribed per year.