The Vietnam War is still a horrible scar in the national memory of America. In total, it lasted about 20 years and killed more than 60,000 American soldiers, many of them very young men. An estimate of an average could be about three American deaths a day. In America there are hundreds of deaths every day, just from fentanyl, just from overdoses. No one can say it isn’t a crisis.

Everyone is someone’s loved one, but addiction problems can leave a family at their wit’s end about how to help. True addicts can’t stop even when they are ready unless they have the right support. They need to form healthy perspectives of both hope and responsibility in moments of clarity. They need a strong, supportive community around them.

As the problem gets worse in the world around us it frustrates some people and normalizes the situation to others. More people today sink into addiction than are lifted out of it. The problem has been studied and there are known ways to heal this. All of these people are members of the community either way. They all have plenty of hope and potential to recover into the acceptable, responsible, productive people that all Americans can be.

Our communities need to not only take preventative measures against this epidemic of addiction, we need to come together to give everyone both a sense of healthy responsibility and hope.

Eli Cohen

Union

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