In Baltimore, Older Black Men Are a 'Lost Generation'

Drug deaths are taking a huge toll among those from the mid-50s to early 70s
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 9, 2024 8:00 AM CDT
In Baltimore, Black Men in 50s to 70s Hit Hardest by Drugs
The city of Baltimore.   (Gety / Connor E Bell)

Baltimore is undergoing an epidemic of fatal drug overdoses, and one group there is being hit hardest: Older Black men. Some sobering statistics: They are more likely to die of drug overdoses than cancer. More Black men between their mid-50s to early 70s have died from overdoses than COVID during peak-pandemic. And now, fatal overdoses are tied with heart disease as the leading cause of death in their demographic. "I feel like I work at the morgue sometimes," Larnell Robinson, a tenant council president of a subsidized senior complex in West Baltimore, tells the New York Times. As he sorted through a list of residents, he ticked off the names of 15 men over the age of 50 who died of overdoses since 2015. An investigation by the Times and the Baltimore Banner dives into the grim details of this "little-recognized lost generation" of Black men in the city.

Though they make up 7% of Baltimore's population, men in this demographic comprise 30% of deaths from drug use. The problem is rooted in decades of social issues, starting back to when manufacturing jobs began disappearing in the once-industrial city. By 1980, their unemployment rate hit Depression-era levels, with half of young Black men without work at the same time a shadow economy of highly addictive drugs came to town. Drug fatalities within this group are estimated to be more than 4,000 since 1993—the main reason Baltimore's fatal overdose rate exceeds that of other cities. Check out the full story here—and for a briefer read, the Times summarizes important takeaways here. (There's a rare reason to celebrate amidst the fentanyl crisis.)

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