The hunt for truth in addiction coverage
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Hunter Biden and the Lie That Recovery Is a Straight Line
By Joe Schrank | High Sobriety
Hunter Biden is struggling. That much is obvious. But what’s less obvious—because it doesn’t sell ad space on Fox News—is that he’s also trying. Over and over again. And in that way, he’s just like every other person who’s tangled with addiction: messy, complicated, not a slogan.
I’ve interviewed Hunter. He came on Rehab Confidential, the podcast I co-host with Amy Dresner. He was thoughtful, honest, and fully present. He didn’t dodge the hard questions. He didn’t hide behind PR. He showed up like someone who’s lived through hell and is still sorting through the wreckage.
If anyone wants to produce the show again, we’re ready to reboot. Amy and I are both terrible at logistics and business—no shame in that—but we’re good at content. We’re good at telling the truth.
Hunter Biden is the addict the media loves to hate because he messes with the narrative. He’s not a faceless “urban menace” they can lock up and forget. He’s not a D-list celebrity with a redemption arc and a line of essential oils. He’s the son of a former President. His addiction made it all the way to the White House lawn—and instead of using that as an opening for an honest national conversation, we turned it into a punchline.
We could’ve had a real family meeting, America. We could’ve acknowledged that addiction hits every zip code, every tax bracket, every family—including the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But instead, conservative media did what they always do: lie, posture, and gloat, as if addiction is proof of moral failure and something to mock.
And if that’s fair game, what’s next? Don Jr.’s weird teeth? Tiffany Trump’s doughy, flappy teacher arms?
What I saw in Hunter was a man still in the fight. Still doing the work. Not always succeeding, but who is? Addiction is not a one-act play with a clean finale. It’s two steps forward, one court summons back. People who keep trying get better. That matters.
Hunter’s story—minus the American royalty privilege—isn’t rare at all. It’s painfully common. The shiny intervention-into-enlightenment story arc that local news loves to cover? That’s the unicorn. Most people? They struggle. They relapse. They claw their way forward and fall back again. Sometimes they get well. Sometimes they don’t. Most of the time, nobody’s filming.
The people who actually resemble the real face of recovery aren’t the smug, slogan-slinging rehab moguls. It’s the public messes—Ozzy, Courtney Love, Hunter Biden. They are chaotic and alive, still here, still trying. And they tell a version of addiction that feels honest. That alone makes them more credible than any yacht-owning, ex-fraternity-bro who went from blackout artist to recovery shamer with a startup.
Hunter could’ve led the way. His father could’ve used their family experience to shift the conversation, to bring some humanity into drug policy, to finally admit this disease touches even the most powerful families in America. But they didn’t. Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe Joe thought he’d lose votes. What’s clear is that we missed a shot to be real about what addiction actually is—and who it actually affects.
Instead, we got more racist nonsense. The current administration continues to peddle the same tired lie that addiction is caused by “evil brown people at the southern border.” It’s not just untrue—it’s not even logistically accurate. Most fentanyl is smuggled in by U.S. citizens through legal ports of entry. But that doesn’t sell fear like blaming brown people does, so here we are.
Again. Still. Not caring. Not changing. Letting assholes get rich selling shame as treatment. Letting young people die or get their futures buried under prison time. Letting the rare moment when someone public enough, flawed enough, and honest enough might’ve cracked the national denial… just pass.
We could’ve done something different. We still could.
But I’m not holding my breath.
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Recovery isn’t linear.
But the bullshit seems to be.
