Hunter Biden reveals tip of the iceberg of America's addiction problem (2024)

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jun 13, 2024 15:40 IST

A young man with a promising future entered an American college on a football scholarship. He was ecstatic and full of hope. After a shoulder injury, he would slip into oxytocin addiction and would slowly lose track of his life. Substance-use disorder or drug addiction is a common phenomenon in the US.

This man's story is important. He was the nephew of a juror in the case of US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, who applied for a gun and received it during a period of drug addiction. Hunter Biden has been found guilty in the case.

Hunter had been charged by federal prosecutors for lying about his drug use in a form to obtain a gun in 2018. He had pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argued he was not using drugs even when he filled out the form. On June 11, a jury found Hunter guilty.

Hunter Biden's story is important. As it reveals the extent of the drug-addiction epidemic in the US.

In the US, at least 32% of the population has lost someone to drug addiction, according to a Johns Hopkins report.

Hunter Biden's trial, right from the jury selection, and the reactions to the ruling lays bare the extent of America’s drug addiction epidemic.

JURY SELECTION AND THE PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF ADDICTION

The court walked through 65 people to select a jury for his trial. Many of them have seen someone suffer from addiction or even lost themselves to it. They knew what it meant to be an addict and how people could either recover or surrender to addiction.

The story of the jurors also came up.

The court heard personal accounts of the jurors to understand the toll it had taken on them. If they hadn't dealt with addiction personally, they knew someone who suffered or died due to the scourge of addiction.

“My childhood best friend passed away from an overdose,” one juror said.

One potential juror was in tears when they explained that both their nephew and brother-in-law had battled with drug addiction. “I can tell that’s a very emotional thing for you,” the judge said, “I know it’s hard, and I’m very sorry”.

Another man revealed how his brother was addicted to opioids, but now he is in rehab.

These stories are also reflective of the drug problem in the US. Around 32 percent of the U.S. adult population, or an estimated 82.7 million individuals, in the US have lost someone to drug abuse, according to research conducted by Johns Hopkins University.

“The drug overdose crisis is a national tragedy,” says Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School.

"Although large numbers of U.S. adults are bereaved due to overdose, they may not be as visible as other groups who have lost loved ones to less stigmatised health issues. Movements to build support for policy change to overcome the devastating toll of the overdose crisis should consider the role of this community.”

HUNTER BIDEN'S CONVICTION HIGHLIGHTS THE PROBLEM OF ADDICTION

Some even believe that the President's son's conviction might finally bring the spotlight on the huge problem of addiction in the US.

William C Moyers was also an addict, and now he helps people with recovery. “Hunter Biden’s story is a story that all too many Americans know intimately,” he told the BBC.

“It’s a good thing if, at the end of the day, we shift our conversations and our focus away from just piling on, and instead recognise that addiction is a public health crisis and that recovery is possible,” said Moyers.

Shaming is equal to silencing. When we shame famous people for their addiction, we also stop ordinary people suffering from addiction from speaking up.

Addiction also comes out of testing circ*mstances sometimes. "After my uncle died, things got bad," Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden testified.

'GLARING, UNFORGIVING SPOTLIGHT THAT NEVER DIMS' ON PRESIDENTS' FAMILIES

The families of American Presidents also undergo immense scrutiny and pressure, especially if the press gets a whiff of addiction in them.

“Families of presidents have struggled with substance-use issues forever,” Mr Moyers told the BBC.

Hunter Biden's case isn't the first.

President Ronald Reagan's daughter, Patty Davis, wrote a piece in The New York Times, titled, 'One Thing Everyone Is Missing About Hunter Biden’s Case'.

Patty Davis was herself addicted to amphetamines. She wrote in the article about how "addicts weave tragedy into their own lives and into the lives of those around them." She also wrote, "But as the daughter of first a governor and then a president, I do know what it’s like to live under a glaring, unforgiving spotlight that never dims."

She wrote that the choices and the mistakes they made never leave them. She mentioned how people like her and Hunter Biden "are always defined by their sins" and not their recovery.

"There are a lot of Hunter Bidens in this world, people who fell in way over their heads, who long for someone to believe they can recover and construct their lives differently. You just don’t hear about them on the evening news," she concluded.

Data, Hunter Biden's conviction and the personal accounts of the jurors hint at a massive addiction problem in the US. The Hunter Biden case also suggests that the problem needs to be handled at multiple levels: in policy, in awareness and in offering support to addicts.