The journey from an addiction to a functioning member of society is a long one and requires a sympathetic and supportive public.

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We are in a modern-day epidemic and the problem is that the public is split as to how to deal with it. Modern-day opioids are killing our people in record numbers and an all-out effort must be made to address it before it becomes unmanageable.

The approaches extend from harm reduction to complete abstinence, but neither is an answer in the long run.

In the 1980s, I was attending the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. It was close to Veterans Day and one of the speakers reminded the audience to remember the veterans. He went on to state that half of the homeless people on the streets were Vietnam vets.

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I remembered a friend from Ontario who was very bright but was a heavy drinker. He had been a medic in Vietnam, and he witnesses things no person should see. He lived out his life with untreated post-traumatic stress disorder.

When I looked around the streets of San Francisco I was amazed at the number........

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