Critics: White House Campaign to Address Opioid Epidemic Needs to be More Diverse

A White House campaign designed to address the opioid epidemic is not diverse enough, critics tell U.S. News & World Report.

The campaign, “Opioids: The Crisis Next Door,” features many middle-class, white people, according to Ingrid Walker, a drug policy researcher at the University of Washington-Tacoma. “A lot of them seem to be Christian, a lot of them were very supportive of President Trump, so it felt like it was speaking to a base, to a certain extent,” she said. The website includes a video message from the president.

The campaign, launched in March 2018, urges people to share their experiences with opioid addiction and recovery.

“The face of the opioid crisis is not necessarily a white face. It is a really diverse face – a number of people from a number of different communities,” said Liz Chiarello, an assistant professor of sociology at Saint Louis University.