In this state, addiction has become a profit center for both the supply side and the treatment side. Addicts are treated as victims and given all the free resources they need to wallow in that victimhood status and continue down that dark road. At best, they can trade the illegal addiction for the legal addiction (suboxone/methadone). Many, if not most take advantage of both. If addiction was "cured" tonight, large state bureaucracies would no longer be needed, putting people out of work, huge budgets no longer necessary. There is no incentive to actually solve this crisis from a government perspective. It's become a self-perpetuating cycle. The government is not about downsizing. Far from it.
Beating an opiate addiction is a HUGE task. It takes a true "come to Jesus" moment so to speak, to even begin to try. It is nearly impossible without help. Any amount of "treatment" will not help if the addict goes right back to the same conditions they were stuck in. That is magnified greatly when the same people who are tasked with that treatment are also telling you it's not your fault and handing out clean needles, crack pipes and all the narcan you need.
I have massive empathy for those stuck in opiate addiction. It is a choice to start, but pretty soon it's not simply a choice to quit. It takes a massive effort and a ton of support from everyone around you.
Sometimes a gentle hand is the right path to solving these societal problems. Unfortunately, when it comes to the current addiction problem, it's going to take a hardcore 'boot up the ***" to turn things around. People will suffer. That is where the current system has lead us though.
The changes in society, in my area, over my 60 years, due entirely to opiate addiction are monumental, to say the least. It's only going to get worse following the current direction.
