A very good and sad article. It is a spiritual crisis...but not among the users, addicts and lunatics, but among the elites that create policy. The elite float along with the idea of a life without rules, without a moral code, without any forbidden behavior or prohibition, and without any positive objective. They generally have the money and enough remnants of stability to protect the themselves from the consequences, but these sad wrecks do not.
And what is worse, not only do the elites encourage their anarchic and degrading view of human life and morality by refusing to impose social laws, they insist that society itself fund this antisocial behavior and resign itself to enduring the consequences.
Imposing external standards - the fundamental meaning of the broken windows policy - is the only thing that works. And the policy has to be imposed and enforced: the article points out that under Bratton, crime and rates of addiction dropped. This can only be done through enforcing laws on public behavior, with consequences for violation such as involuntary in-patient treatment for the mentally ill, involuntary long-term commitment to drug treatment facilities, And severe penalties for drug sales and use. It also requires a true war against the gangs and cartels.
...and the city fathers choose not to give them the dignity of a job and purpose in life, instead they import illegals to deploy as slave labour