Dear editor,

My son told me of Ryan鈥檚 death. They were teammates. I coached them a couple of years. When I was done crying at the waste and so unnecessary pain my annoyance behaviour kicked in and I got angry.

Perhaps as a society we should look in the mirror. And then open the medicine cabinet and have a look at our medicine jars.

As opiate overdose deaths have quadrupled, prescriptions for opiate pain-killers have also grown four times over.

Purdue Pharma has settled with the U.S. government for over $600,000,000 USD to make their drug dealer charges go away.

The whole $600m is not worth one Ryan. But it is evidence that you can make the mafia pay.

Make them pay I say, just like the mayor of Huntington, West Virginia, whose city suffers the highest OD rate of any city in America.

He鈥檚 suing the dealers to try and bring some relief to his community.

And maybe the next time we sprain an ankle, pull a muscle, or otherwise wish to avoid all the pain, we should think of the waste and pause to look in the mirror.

I鈥檓 so sad and sorry,

Steve W Hodge, Victoria