Yes, if it were an addictions crisis, you could look back to decades past where alcohol consumption had the highest rate of addiction in the country forever. It was the number one drug, so if that was an addictions crisis, why didn't we call it an addictions crisis 20 years ago?
It's really a toxic drug crisis because the drug supply has just shifted and changed. Yes, sure, there are people who are struggling with addiction who are using substances. I'm not denying that, but let's get real. What's killing people is the contaminated toxic drug supply. Some people, yes, may struggle with an addiction, but again, it being a chronic relapsing condition.... I went to treatment over a dozen times, and the majority of people who go into treatment don't walk in the front door and out the back door and their lives change. This is a process. Recovery is a long journey for a lot of us, for the majority of us.
I think one of the things we have to look at and be real with is how we treat death and prevent people from dying, and how we support people and treat addiction. You can't treat addiction if people are dead.