Hunter Biden is now a convicted felon, found guilty Tuesday on all three federal charges he faced for what a jury decided was his illegal purchase and possession of a gun in 2018. This is a historic verdict — no sitting president’s child has ever been convicted in a criminal trial. What’s far more common, sadly, is that another American family has been roiled by the repercussions of substance use disorder.
Biden was convicted on three charges connected to false information he gave on a federal application for a gun, including lying about his drug use. He could face up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 fine. Advertisement During the trial, Biden’s daughter, former wife, and two former girlfriends testified about a man who, unmoored by the death of his brother Beau in 2015, began using crack cocaine.
Biden described himself as having had “a full-blown addiction.” And in private text messages that were never meant to be shared with strangers in a courtroom or used as evidence against her father, Naomi Biden articulated how substance use disorder can test and fray family ties. At times, their testimony about Biden was embarrassing and lurid.
But it was also achingly familiar for millions of families who’ve personally witnessed a loved one’s desperate battle with addiction. In a recent survey by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 32 percent of American adults — more than 80 million people — know someone who has died from an overdose. Nearly 66 pe.
