As the Audit Commission recently pointed out, many treatment services are wasted or ineffective because they fail to deal with the other problems - mental health, housing, social care - which often afflict the lives of addicts.
In her first months in charge Yingluck has had to deal with a busy in-tray, including responding to some of the most severe monsoon floods to afflict the country in living memory.
Hilgartner, now 67, was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), one of the more lethal forms of severe fibrotic conditions that afflict more than 10 million Americans.