It’s not the meds. It’s a lack of treatment.
When your leg is infected, your brain realizes it and causes you to treat the wound. When the brain is sick, it often does not realize it and thus does not seek treatment.
Our laws allow the individual to determine whether or not to accept medical intervention. Only if family members or law enforcement can prove that the individual is a danger to himself or others can he be removed from society against his will.
And even if he is taken off the streets, the court order is only good until the meds start working, then he’s back out, he doesn’t take his medicine, and the cycle repeats.
I’ve lived it with close family. Every time I learn of one of these episodes, I think, “There but for the grace of God . . .”
You are so right that it’s not a gun issue but a mental health issue. Time after time after time we hear about these sick people only after they’ve harmed others.
Yet we don’t have the will or the laws to take them off the street before they act.
For so many who know it runs in their families, that phrase is even more relevant.
I do wish one of the candidates would pick up the message. But also know it truly is a state/ local issue.