Hit hard by opioid crisis, Black patients further hurt by barriers to care

By Melba Newsome, KFF Health News
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Purple flags, representing the nearly 300 Mecklenburg County residents who died of opioid overdose in 2023, fluttered in the humid breeze last August in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on the city’s predominantly Black west side.
As recently as five years ago, the event might have attracted an overwhelmingly white crowd.
But the gathering on the last day of the month at the Valerie C. Woodard Community Resource C