Suicides and drug overdoses have put the U.S. "in the grip of two lethal epidemics" – and the government must take immediate steps to stop the crisis, The Chicago Tribune says in an editorial published Monday.
"The deaths of designer Kate Spade and TV personality Anthony Bourdain alerted Americans to the rising number of people taking their own lives. … Fatal drug overdoses also have soared," the newspaper's editorial board writes.
"If hundreds of our fellow citizens were dying every day from terrorist attacks or Ebola, the reaction would be far different. … What is it about life in modern America that drives so many into self-destruction? There are many possible explanations: economic dislocation, bleak job prospects, family breakdown, social isolation, the decline of religion and other sources of meaning.
"It won't do to treat symptoms and ignore causes. But neither will it do to put off immediate steps until we understand everything. A tragedy is raging every day. It demands our action."
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