"The crack epidemic, which many viewed as an inner-city problem among mostly black and brown people, produced a vicious raft of drug laws and the 1994 Crime Bill. However, now that there is an opioid epidemic disproportionately affecting white people, there is a concerted effort to rebrand them as victims rather than criminals and to treat them with a compassion that was denied nonwhite people addicted to drugs in previous eras."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/opinion/trump-immigrants-punishment.html