Public Policy

I thought that blue ribbon commission did a pretty good job with its 60 recommendations, but I haven’t seen much subsequent action, have you?

As a former insurance VP once put it, you spend your day looking at spreadsheets, you forget there are real people out there depending on you.

…those users have fewer resources to pay for healthcare and legal problems that often result from more drinking. So who picks up the tab?

There are plenty of steps we could take, supported by research and common sense, that would produce measurable gains in a relatively short span.

I think most people understand the concept of making amends for past misdeeds.

The next big step would be the appearance of cannabis products, edible and perhaps smoked, on the shelves of large chain retailers and pharmacies.

In many communities, the push to get the drinker or user “off the street” has turned the jail into an unwilling detox facility.

We watch and listen to Big Pharma execs on television and find ourselves thinking, are these guys so different from a street corner drug dealer?

But the repair isn’t cheap, and the outcomes require some patience. And that’s why efforts often fail. America gives up too early. 

When he speaks, he reminds me of others I’ve known who come from families that fought and lost a battle with addictive disease.