17 human beings who screwed up, yes. But also 17 humans who touched someone's hearts in their lives and who now have left broken hearts in the wake of their choices and addiction (selling their freedom, even their lives, for a high). These 17 people made a difference in their friends and loved-ones lives.
The 17 are more than their addiction and remembering the good they accomplished should not be lost in the indifference of society who sometimes think they are better than them.
The 17 were not 'unnecessary verbs' or Darwinian casualties (survival of the fittest and natural selection weeding out the weak).
Many accomplished people die from addiction, too, including great artists, philosophers, judges, teachers, children of parents who loved them (they are as crucial to our world as great religious teachers who fell from social grace).
"Indifference is the least we have to dread from man or beast. If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me." W.H. Auden from his poem, The More Loving One
175 Overdoses & 17 Fatalities