It's STILL About Ones Race

Three 6 Mafia and UGK were rapping about opiates way back in 1999.
But Lean/Purple Drank was seen more as a Black and ghetto concoction and not a threat to white, middleclass, suburban, kids.

When Black kids were dying from prescription medication it was seen as a choice and indicative of a larger problem of drug use in the Black community.

Okay, sure.
Drug use is a choice and not a disease.
And yes, drugs are prevalent in many poor Black communities.

But this was a 'legal high'.
This stuff had to be prescribed by doctors. (Isn't that the way the current administration frames their reaction to the white Opioid/Heroin problem?)

Sippin' on that Sizzurp crossed racial and economic lines.

(Actually, it was never endemic to Blacks.)

Once images of the white, teen heartthrob, Justin Bieber began to show up on the internet back on 2014 - Actavis ceased production of its  Promethazine Codeine products.
The.
Company.
Stopped.
Making.
It.
Just like that.