To whom it may concern:

Our country is in the middle of a double health crises. One is a pandemic, COVID-19, the other is the opioid epidemic. Yet they both end the same way. No one knows how devastating it is until they have to bury a loved one.

The opioid epidemic is a health issue. It is a disease just as Covid. Not everyone that needs pain medication turns into an addict just as not everyone who contracts Covid is hospitalized or dies.

Dealing and coping with addiction can be a monumental task for families. I feel it is important to realize that these folks have families, parents, children, siblings.

I believe that to remember this is important to our society. Perhaps instead of writing a life lost as a statistic, it should be written as a person. Writing an article as our society lost two citizens to the opioid crisis, instead of our county has its first two overdoses, would better serve our community.

Thank you,

Judith Baril-Jackson

Hillsboro