In teaching about the opioid crisis as an issue suitable for
civics’ instruction, a lot of attention is given to the factors that lead to
people becoming addicted. One set of
factors, this blog has described, has been the economic downturn certain areas
of the country have experienced.
The reasons for this economic
distress are due to a plunging demand for coal, generally, but from the Appalachian
area, specifically, the loss of jobs to foreign manufacturing countries with
cheaper labor, and to automation. And
one can still see how the remnants of the Great Recession have meaningful effects
within certain regions of the country.
Another way to study this topic is
not to look at where economic problems have materialized but to look at areas
where they have not. One town that Beth
Macy[1]
highlights, one that is geographically not far from hard hit areas but that did
not suffer from the above developments, was Woodstock, Virginia. She also writes about Lowville, New
York. Both are highly similar in terms
of their size and in their economic conditions.
Relying on analysis by a Syracuse
University professor, Shannon Monat, Macy points out some telling statistics. The first one is of Lowville; a town situated
near the Adirondacks and is Monat’s hometown.
It has a healthy economic mix which includes a viable dairy farm sector,
produces wood products, and “houses” a wind turbine farm that through its
operation generates $3.5 million dollars a year for the local school
district.
Monat sees the former conditions of Woodstock
in the same vein. In order to give the
reader perspective of what size towns these are, Woodstock has a population,
according to the 2010 census, of nearly 5100.
Like Lowville, it is a rural community with varied other business enterprises.
Overall, Woodstock had fewer people
who smoked, fewer people without insurance, and, more relevant to the topic
here, lower mortality rates due to drugs, especially opioids, than those areas
that relied on coal and single industry-based manufacturing such as furniture-making
in the years up until the present century.
Macy goes on to describe how drug
dealers are trying to make inroads into Woodstock – it, the town, is not beyond
effective efforts to expand this illicit market.[2]
One can observe a more direct stat
that further makes the comparison being made here. When one compares opioid-prescription rates, Woodstock
area had roughly half Virginia’s rate and a one-third the rate reported from
coal mining counties in that state. To
compare two affected counties, Lee County, Virginia – a coal mining county –
and Shenandoah County – in which Woodstock is the county seat – Lee doctors
issued, in 2013, 10.23 prescriptions per Medicare Part D enrollee and
Shenandoah doctors issued 2.96 to the same enrollee population.
While the number of communities in
this review is too small, those who study this epidemic, like Monat, consider
the resulting above numbers as representative of the distinction between economically
stable communities and those that have significant economic challenges that seem
to be endless with no foreseeable solutions in the near future.
[Note: This blog has
posted various entries that intend to assist civics teachers who wish to incorporate
the opioid crisis as an ongoing societal problem that abuses federalist
values. Other postings have promoted the
instructional practice of having students engage in a political or otherwise
voluntary activity meant to help end or ameliorate the local manifestation of such
situations, situations that similarly defy federalist values.
While the message here is that the
opioid crisis can be such a situation, illicit drug selling, dealing,
purchasing, and/or consuming is illegal.
Teachers who allow students to engage in any community based activities
relating to this trade, need to guarantee that students do not come into
physical contact with any of its aspects – whether by handling or being in the
proximity of any illicit drugs or with those who engage in its trade.
This can become touchy if a student’s
relative(s) engages, in any way with such trade. Perhaps, those students should limit their
interaction with people who are – from a community effort attempt or a law-enforcing
attempt – working to address either the selling of illicit drugs or the
consequences of their sales.]
[1] Beth Macy, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that
Addicted America (New York, NY:
Riverhead Books, 2018).
[2] Actually, more recent developments unfortunately have
introduced another factor – talented entrepreneurship. Woodstock was targeted by an individual who
wanted to expand his market. That
individual has opened a healthy trade in that town. Here is how Macy describes this turn of
events:
[Quoting
Metcalf, a law officer,] “He created a market that didn’t exist before, then he
manipulated it to increase his profits.
And that’s the problem with heroin, and why I don’t think its going away: The money is insane, and the customers are
always there.”
This
indicates yet another factor, the rate of profit this product generates. Ibid., 170.
