Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
But one of the underlying issues of drug addiction is some people just love to get wasted. Absolutely love it. Want to get wasted as much as they can as often as they can.
A lot of well-intentioned, educated people who see this as strictly a socioeconomic or health issue seem to have trouble putting themselves in the shoes of heavy drug users. They champion policies and supports that would help someone like them get clean and off the streets. That’s why they struggle to understand why, when presented with the choice between a medically-supervised, free, clean opiate substitute, and a street drug that costs money and may kill you, many choose the latter (or both). Or why most addicts have no interest in entering rehab.
I had dinner on the weekend with an old friend who I’ve known since we were kids. We got to talking about his brother, Greg, who’s been homeless for over 20 years now.
Greg is a very bright guy. Raised in an upper-middle-class home. But since he was in jr high, he has loved to get wasted. Booze, pot, acid, speed, meth, coke - he loves it all. When he was in his 20s, he had his #### together enough to work regularly and pay rent in low-end apartments. By his mid-30s he wasn’t reliable enough to work a 9-5 job, so he couldn’t make regular rent, and drifted from friend’s place to friend’s place, burning bridges by living like a pig, stealing, etc until he wound up on the street.
These days he lives at the drop-in centre 5 days a week, and on weekends musters up enough money to pay for a hotel room with a couple buddies and party until Sunday, when he goes back to the drop-in centre.
Unaffordable housing isn’t the issue with Greg - he couldn’t pay rent regularly even when it was cheap to live in Calgary. Give him a free place to live and he would trash it within weeks. His parents tried to get him into rehab many times, with zero success. For Greg, any future that involves getting wasted less is a future he has no interest in.
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