Health Advocates Share Important Strategies to Support Black Women Battling with Substance Use

This article was written by McKenzie Jackson with California Black Media.

“Theresa Hunter used drugs growing up in the Sacramento area. The 32-year-old smoked weed, snorted cocaine and popped pills.

Then, as a young adult, the mother of three found a different high: crystal methamphetamine.

“To deal with the trauma and grief in my life at that time, I turned to using drugs,” Hunter recalled. “I was trying to escape from everything.”

For five years, Hunter smoked around two grams a day of the highly addictive stimulant.

Crystal meth causes intense euphoria and negative effects such as depression, psychosis and paranoia, seizures and other problems that can be fatal. Hunter’s addiction led her to becoming homeless and leaving her daughters’ care to their father.

Hunter tried to quit crystal meth but became lethargic and slept for days when she didn’t smoke. Rehab centers only accept individuals with alcohol or opioid issues.

In 2021, while four months pregnant with her third daughter, Kassiani Rich, Hunter told her prenatal doctor that she was an addict.

“This is my time to get clean and sober,” remembered Hunter. “I was scared, but I knew I needed to get clean. I didn’t want to have an abortion or give my daughter up.”

Hunter was admitted to a rehab center for 90 days but relapsed twice after release.

Kassiani was born healthy, but Hunter lost custody and underwent further rehab. Hunter has been clean since June 12, 2021, and now has custody of Kassiani, 2, and her other daughters, Eryneesa Bernard-Wainiwheh, 13, and Jasani Bernard-Wainiwheh, 10. She credits her daughters and programs such as See Her Bloom, an online project that helps Black women with substance abuse disorders by sharing resources and allowing women to tell their stories, for paving her road to recovery.

“Knowing there is a platform to help women overcome their addiction, having a place women can go to is really helpful,” Hunter said.

See Her Bloom is one of the many organizations and campaigns in the Golden State focused on combatting substance use disorder. According to a 2022 report by the California Health Care Foundation, overdose deaths from opioids and psychostimulants, like crystal meth, are soaring, and 9% of Californians met the criteria for SUD — misuse or overuse of alcohol or other drugs, including illicit drugs that lead to health problems — the previous year. Only 10% of the people with SUD received treatment in 2021, despite SUDs being recognized as an illness.

Black Americans have higher rates of illicit drug use (24.3%) compared to non-Hispanic Whites (22.5%), according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention released in May, revealed that from December 2021 to December 2022 there were 107,573 drug overdose deaths — a decrease of 2% from the previous 12 months. Elizabeth Keating, clinical program director of CA Bridge, a Public Health Institute focused on expanding addiction medication for treatment in hospital emergency departments, said overdose rates in California increased by around 1% between 2021 and 2022.