BOX 2—
Domain 2: Racialized Histories of Trauma in the Era of the Overdose Crisis: Maryland, January–December 2019
| The impact of fentanyl on Black communities in the DC metro area: “When fentanyl came through and hit the population real hard, there were a lot of people you thought weren’t on drugs [who] was OD’ing and dying. It’s been hitting really hard in the Black community. When I was working at the needle exchange over in DC, we lost 14 to 15 people from fentanyl. Some of them don’t look like they do nothing. Everyday clean cut. Dress nice. Go to work. But they’ll end up getting bad dope, OD, and they’re gone. People just like us. Everyday people from all walks of life.” Frontline provider, Prince George’s County |
| The impact of fentanyl on Black communities in the DC metro area: “So, that’s why I say it’s getting worse . . . since I got out of treatment, 6 people have overdosed and died that I knew. Six. . . . From heroin, [people] that I went to treatment with. It had to be [fentanyl laced]. It had to be, because nobody uses straight heroin anymore. There is no such thing anymore. There is no such thing as straight heroin anymore. From the heroin addicts that I do know, or the ones that were addicts and that are clean, there is no straight heroin anymore.” 31-y-old Black woman, Prince George’s County |
| Compounded loss: “We can go back and I tell you how many people I lost. So I had a friend in my addiction. I woke up and next to me dead. I woke up, he was dead next to me. Dead. He died right next to me. . . . My friend B died over fentanyl overdose. I lost, like, 3, 4 people. Last year when my father—year before last when my father died—I lost 7 people in that same year.” 40-y-old Black man, Prince George’s County |
| Anxieties related to anti-immigrant climate: “What I do see is that Hispanic people do sometimes, or several times, express their concern about the current anti-immigrant climate . . . and there is anguish, worry, and anxiety.” Provider serving Latinx community |
| Political climate affecting engagement with services: “I think we’ve seen it since the [2016] elections. . . . I’ve heard from jurisdictions in the area that traffic through their health and human services department has dropped dramatically. . . . People have chosen to not renew their children’s Medicaid or abandoned applications halfway through. Disenroll from other programs like SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] or free and reduced lunch. Anywhere that they feel that their information can then be shared with other agencies or just out of fear of having their information in any kind of database or registry has been prevalent.” Provider serving Latinx community |
| Compounded trauma with threat of immigration enforcement: “The ongoing attacks, it just exacerbates everything else. If you’re already dealing with the trauma of coming here, and then dealing with the trauma of then living here under all this anti-immigrant rhetoric, I think it just exacerbates everything else. And it distracts from everything else, too. Like we were talking about people being fearful to leave their house and being out and about in the community. Then it makes everything else that much more secondary. So, yes, I may want to connect to these services, or go into treatment. And I was already thinking twice about it, and now these raid threats are here. It just pushes everything back even more, and potentially exacerbates all the needs in our community.” Provider serving Latinx community |