Frankly things like over eating and smoking shouldn’t be covered by public tax dollars either. Those again, hurt the individual, but not the community, therefore personal issue. The opioid epidemic was directly used against the PUBLIC by the big pharma companies, Purdue in particular. It damages the public as a whole, just look at Manchester if you don’t believe me, obesity and smoking didn’t turn that city into the relative shithole it is now. And (though the company’s themselves should foot the whole bill but we know that isn’t gonna happen) public dollars should be used to help those addicts and fight the inflow of drugs.

Helping obese people, smokers, and trans wishing to transition, is not a “for the betterment of the public” cause, but rather for those individuals themselves.