I totally agree with you, esp about needing access and hte abiliity to pay for sub abuse and mental health treatment because those things create poverty and in my opinion that keeps us ALL poor. Providing care for those who need it when it is in the early days of the problem is not only the right thing to do, vastly more humane, and the time when the help has the best chance of working, it is also vastly more cost effective. The problems are not compounded by complications, time and other problems.
I do wonder exactly what services could help this boy and his family? I know it ould take a herd of tdocs, psychiatrists and other professionals to really help my brother. I also know my parents DID take him to a therapist, and when they realized that maybe medications would help, they paid for that also. I just have zero idea who he would have listened to as a kid, and what type of help could have changed what he did.
I have spent a large amt of my life wondering what is wrong with him, knowing SOMETHING was because normal people don't behave that way, and being fairly aware that he could fool 98%+ of the people much of the time. Until he is ready to change, NO help will work.
Of course it does not mean we stop trying. It does mean it is super easy to dumb down the situation to a soundbite that the someone will exploit, in my opinion. I guess that is the definition of politics lately though.