Yeah I think restriction, even a non-trivial percentage of republicans would agree is a good compromise. But weirdly it seems a majority of voters don't get representation in this regard? I guess the system of a Republic works a little differently.

be skeptical of what you see in media

Oh I am, all the time. Bringing the drug documentary in was not to imply that it was the case in all of the states - far from it. But the reason it exists in the first place is one that really has no excuse, and I actually think we're publicly lead to believe it's less of a problem than it really is.

The fentanyl crisis is exactly that, a crisis which has rapidly skyrocketed, with a 26% increase of deaths by overdose from this one specific drug from the year before - close to 70,000 completely avoidable deaths of young, otherwise healthy adults. This kind of level is uniquely American, and 4-5x worse than the UK (which even so is already a major problem). We don't really have entire neighbourhoods left to OD at their own discretion, at least not when I was last there XD.

The homeless are not only among us. Increasingly, they are becoming us.

That's a thought provoking image... I find it strange in a country like the US where housing is so cheap, could be even cheaper, and arable land is more plentiful than pretty much anywhere on Earth. Eesh