“Fentanyl and Crack: Divergent Entanglements of Rule and Story”

The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Mark William Osler now avaialble via SSRN. Here is its abstract:

The crack epidemic of the 20th century and the fentanyl epidemic of the 21st century both created a wave of American tragedies. However, the two events were met with very different approaches by government.  Crack was addressed through largely punitive measures, with harsh mandatory minimums and guidelines aimed even at those involved with relatively small amounts of the drug.  Fentanyl was approached differently, with a greater emphasis on treatment and administrative changes rather than super-criminalization.  This symposium article addresses this disparity by looking to the stories that framed each approach.  They suggest that the difference in response was driven by race (and racism), changes in the media, the impact of advocacy, and (perhaps) learning from past mistakes.