Hunter Biden verdict puts spotlight on addiction in the US

William C Moyers knows something about Hunter Biden’s journey.

As a younger man, he was addicted to crack cocaine and went through treatment to recover with the support of his family.

Now he advocates to help others follow the same path as vice-president of public affairs at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, named after a former first lady.

When a Delaware jury found the US president’s son guilty of three felony charges linked to his drug addiction, Mr Moyers saw a chance to highlight a common problem in the US – affecting an uncommon family.

“Hunter Biden’s story is a story that all too many Americans know intimately,” he said.

“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.”

In 2022, nearly 49 million Americans aged 12 and older struggled with a substance abuse disorder in the past year, according to the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, external.

And about a third of Americans knew someone who died of a drug overdose, according to a study published in medical journal JAMA, external in March.

Federal prosecutors charged Hunter Biden for lying about his drug use on a form to obtain a gun in October 2018.

He pleaded not guilty and his attorneys argued he was not using drugs when he answered “no” on paperwork asking if he was using or addicted to unlawful substances. On Tuesday, a jury found Biden guilty after about three hours of deliberations.

Never before had a sitting president’s child faced a felony conviction. Yet Biden’s case over several days showed not even America’s first family is immune to addiction, and highlighted a battle millions face across the US.

“Every family, whether you’re coastal or in the American heartland, probably has a family member or an extended family member who [has] a substance use disorder,” said Dr Lucas Trautman, medical director at a chapter of American Addiction Centers in Mississippi.

But the trial re-aired embarrassing details about Biden’s life during his period of addiction, previously used as fodder by his father’s critics.