Because making it “less deadly” somehow equates to enabling them.

I think that people are more concerned with opioid death statistics than opioid addiction itself. And there is a shattering sense of defeat, which is normal, that is associated with realizing that you cannot help anyone who doesn’t want to help themselves. And if they don’t want to help themselves, then they may go down a collision course that will be their undoing. In this case that often means death.

> people are more concerned with opioid death statistics than opioid addiction itself.

I feel strongly this way, or maybe I'm missing your point. Addiction is terrible, but death is clearly worse than addiction. Addiction is survivable.

Would you choose addiction over death? I’m talking hard drugs. Bottoms out on the same street that you grew up on, or raised your children on, or worked on.

My point is that the “preventive maintenance” approach to opioid addiction is more about death statistics than it is about death itself. It’s a numbers game. A nation’s response to situations such as this will largely be determined by how many people don’t die, because people have a distaste toward death and the general public is subservient to what data suggests irrespective of its practical and tangible representations.

Absolutely. Would you not? I know multiple people who have recovered from serious addiction. There are also a lot of addicts who aren't as hard off as you

No offense, but your view here seems insane to me.

I don't follow your point about death statistics vs death itself.