Opiods and the race issue

Listening to my local NPR station this morning inspired me to tackle the issue of race and the opiod epidemic now engulfing this area.  The story was a packed house at the local theater showing the documentary "Chasing the Dragon", which I gather is a harrowing look at the slippery slope from oxycontin addiction to heroin overdose and frequent death.   Being the NCR, I'm sure the audience was 95% white as is the typical addict in the area.   Numerous studies of this latest drug epidemic have shown the victims are overwhelmingly white.  Where was the outrage during the crack and cocaine epidemics of the 80s.  It seems there is the easy answer, i.e. most crack addicts were and are black and most meth and opiod addicts are white.   Society's reaction to crack was to fill our penal system with black prisoners.  The heroin crisis has sparked an outpouring of social analysis of the mostly white victims with the emphasis on treatment, rather than incarceration.  The racial components of these programs are so transparent as to be farcial.  However, Kevin Drum points out that deaths from the oxycontin to heroin epidemic are far higher than in previous drug regimes.  While this throws a different light on the concerns many people voice for the white victims, it still doesn't explain the differing strategies for resolution of the crises.   Prison for blacks and rehabilitation for whites.  Our racial history in a nutshell.