Desperate Why does it seem that drug addiction leads to homelessness/imprisonment at a much greater level compared to other addictions?

cowardescent

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I don't buy into drug propaganda, I went to school in America and was taught from DARE that smoking one joint of cannabis will ruin your life and lead to harder drugs. Many people in my class eventually grew up and saw how that was clearly false. The thing is though, there are drugs that one should genuinely not mess around with. I'd say unless prescribed by a doctor, things like opiates, benzos, amphetamines, etc... can cause serious problems.

I know many family members/friends with all sorts of addictions. Food addiction, gambling addiction, porn and drug addictions. I can say without hesitation that those with drug addictions have gone through the most devastation in their lifes from it. I myself have even ended up in trouble with the law (thankfully no criminal record) and almost homeless.

I'm not minimizing the effect of something like gambling or porn addiction but why does it seem so uncommon for it to lead to people losing their houses, going to jail, robbing? The slippery slope with drug use seems to be much bigger than with any other addiction.
 
Because the problem is not just the psychological addiction, but the physical and psychological dependance that builds up.
 
Take gambling for example. Ofc someone addicted to gambling is likely addicted to the dopamine rush, but 1) this doesn't fuck around with your receptors too much and 2) it is much easier to redirect with, say, sports, gaming, sex, etc.
 
Behavior might be the biggest factor in those issues. Most that are addicted to something like food, sex, gambling, internet, etc usually aren't altering their actual behavior. They are enjoying their addictions and are the same person ( so to speak ) while indulging.

Drugs, and especially alcohol , not so much. Our behavior changes, we make poor choices and reap the consequences.
 
I don't buy into drug propaganda, I went to school in America and was taught from DARE that smoking one joint of cannabis will ruin your life and lead to harder drugs. Many people in my class eventually grew up and saw how that was clearly false. The thing is though, there are drugs that one should genuinely not mess around with. I'd say unless prescribed by a doctor, things like opiates, benzos, amphetamines, etc... can cause serious problems.

I know many family members/friends with all sorts of addictions. Food addiction, gambling addiction, porn and drug addictions. I can say without hesitation that those with drug addictions have gone through the most devastation in their lifes from it. I myself have even ended up in trouble with the law (thankfully no criminal record) and almost homeless.

I'm not minimizing the effect of something like gambling or porn addiction but why does it seem so uncommon for it to lead to people losing their houses, going to jail, robbing? The slippery slope with drug use seems to be much bigger than with any other addiction.
Gambling addiction is the worst in terms of losing everything fast. You can't do $100,000 worth of cocaine in a weekend. You can lose that fairly quickly sometimes in a matter of a few hours but if you really can't be persuaded not to gamble it and got guts the better thing to do is to go to Baccarat put it all down on Banker.

If you win, you walk with 200k. If you lose...stumble out of the casino
 
The “War on Drugs” started in the US by Reagan is a war on the economically disadvantaged and they punish people who have experienced trauma like sexual abuse for being in pain. And once someone is in the system, it is much much harder to dig themselves out (criminal records leads to no job equals poverty). Remember, “we cannot punish the pain out of people.”

Unfortunately, most societies have harsh stigmas towards substance abuse with certain substances while they are praised for being a workaholic.
 
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I'm not so sure if it's the drugs themselves that lead to homelessness/imprisonment as much as IMO the drugs that can magnify or amplify the behaviors that already reside in a person. For example, when I was in my late teens/early twenties I was horny already. But large amounts of alcohol and the confidence that came with it allowed me to try to seduce every girl I saw at the bars. Now I didn't screw my way onto the streets or into homelessness. But the drinking did eventually get me in trouble with the law, which is a slippery slope that almost ended with imprisonment for sure. I didn't become homeless until a few years after my drinking settled down.
 
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