there are people who have talked about the deaths of despair and the suicide rates, they talk about the addiction rates and they talk about the mental health issues that are causing some of this, so this is a broader discussion that needs to be had and i you know, i hope that when we get back we will have that discussion and we will have at state level, at every level but we also have to have it in our communities and home and hearts and former sheriff, representative, talked about that, almost every one of the cases as you look back on it some indication of mental health problem, in some cases actually investigations of individuals that unfortunately did not resolve and that person being treated the way he or she should have been, we don t know in this case yet enough but at the end from public reporting and what
that requires that kind of response. my colleague, senator brown, has talked about legislation. we should also, of course, as we figure out what happened here learn lessons from it just as we learn lessons from others. and are there more things that can be done? i m sure there are. but i will say there s something deeper going on here. and if you look at the suicide rates, if you look at the addiction rates, this community s done a good job in responding to it but it s been at ground zero in terms of the opioid crisis as well. look at the mental health crisis in our country today, there aren t enough laws and, in fact, no law can correct some of the more fundamental cultural problems we face today as a country and the shooting last night is an indication of that. so i look forward to working together with my colleagues to try to respond the most effective way possible but we also have to look deep into our
time. you mentioned sanjay before the tease. even before sanjay talks about medical marijuana. 100%. i think that we need to have an open mind about this because all the studies show that marijuana is not as bad for you if it s bad at all, as alcohol. alcohol alcohol is much worse. the addiction rates for alcohol, the death rates for alcohol and on and on and on. yet it is legal. most of the people i know who are familiar with marijuana usually handle it pretty well, and most of the time you don t know they re using it. it helps with headaches. it helps with their eyes. it helps with cancer, all kinds of things. it makes people chill out. you don t get the wheel usually and get a dui. when you smoke a joint or whenever you do marijuana, you want to chill. you don t want to go out and drive a car or go dancing. strong points. the pushback is that less bad is
100%. he doesn t hold a position on recreational marijuana. i think that we need to have an open mind about this because all the studies show that marijuana is not as bad for you if it s bad at all, as alcohol. alcohol is much worse. the addiction rates for alcohol the death rates for alcohol. and on and on and on, yet, it is legal. most of the people i know who are familiar with marijuana usually handle it pretty well, and most of the time you don t know they re using it. it helps with headaches. it helps with their eyes. it helps with cancer, it helps all kinds of things. it makes people chill out. you don t get the wheel usually and get a dui. when you smoke a joint or whenever you do marijuana, you want to chill. you don t want to go out and drive a car or go dancing. strong points. the pushback is that less bad is not the best policy standard to make something legal. and when you talk to people okay. maybe it s good for you.
veterans referred to it as candyland. the crisis finds its darkest depression and how it finds our veterans. year after year, doctors at va hospitals over prescribe opioids to vets returning fromom wars in iraq and afghanistan. the va itself admitted it was blessed of the growing addiction crisis appeared at the va deserves blame. va doctors diagnosed 60% of that s from the plummets of the middle east with chronic pain that compares to 30% for the overall american population. until recently, the va treated a veterans chronic pain almost exclusively with opioid painkillers. prescriptions sorted by 270% over 12 years and easy access to the drugs lead to sky-high addiction rates. the va failures don t stop there. in addition to getting tens of thousands of that s hooked on synthetic heroin, the va hasas