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I am sorry to hear about your uncle. There have been similar tragic outcomes in my family.

There are many different kinds of drug addiction recovery programs, and alcoholic recovery programs, and some have more effective long-term outcomes than others.

Are you of the belief that no one can permanently overcome drug addiction, or alcoholism? If so, I strongly disagree with you, and I have personally witnessed success stories in these areas myself.

It is my understanding that all the City of Philadelphia does for all those addicts who live on the streets around Kensington Avenue in Philly, is to remove the body, when someone living there dies.

Some local religious groups come around at times in a truck to distribute sandwiches and other things to these addicts living on the street.

It is hard for me to believe that you cannot think of one thing the city could do to help these people, other than to remove their bodies when they die. I can think of many things they could do. For example, Philly is a "sanctuary city", and welcomes illegal aliens, and finds lodging for them, as well as many other amenities. Instead of welcoming additional illegals (many of whom are drug pushers), and providing all kinds of help for them, they could use that money to help their own suffering citizens first.

After getting them off the streets (like they currently do for the illegals), and cleaning the filthy place on the street up, they could also coordinate additional assistance from various addiction recovery programs, as well as food assistance, and various other services, which could be tied into some kinds of workfare programs. It would still be cheaper than all the money they lavish on these illegal immigrants.

(I have to say goodnight now, but if you don't think there is any chance the city could do a lot more to address these issues, we will just have to agree to disagree. By the way, did you watch any of those youtube videos of Kensington Ave. in Philly that I linked to in my post #46?)

Are you of the belief that no one can permanently overcome drug addiction, or alcoholism?

No, most don’t want to. When lucid they think they are smarter than those of us who work for living. My fater’s younger brother (I refuse to call him my uncle) was certainly that way. As a child he routinely figured out how to steal from two older brothers who earned small sums working for other farmers. He didn’t care when they beat him up, he was still ‘the smart one’. He was always trying to con his way into our home. He was a jailhouse lawyer that knew if you voluntarily invited someone into your domicile the cops couldn’t throw him out for several days. The only way to get rid of him was to give him (a) money (b) liquor or sometimes (c) a good , large dinner. I hated this creep with all of my young heart and quietly cheered when he drank himself to death.