You know I never thought this way before, but thinking back at how my grandson was, I would bet people who are a certain way in their mental state are more susceptible.
My brothers smoked crack with him once (I know rules, but won’t mention it again, just stating it for context) and then my brother said it was the most evil thing he had ever done, he craved it for weeks. See my brother didn’t get addicted because he has a different personality.
So what I, about to say goes against what I used to believe, but I bet if we put the money into mental health for the addicts, when they first start, it would greatly reduce the amount of addicts.
Now when they hit a certain stage, I’m sorry but IMO it’s a lost cause, once the brain has been damage/rewired enough, I this it’s irreversible. My step son is one of those cases. His thought formulation even when he’s not been doing drugs for a while is really damaged. More like a mentally challenged 6 year old. It’s so sad because he wasn’t like that, we were best buddies for 2 years, but slowly drifted apart, then he got back in the drugs but ones with a more damaging effect.
Also I have no idea what the whole answer is.
Btw, the most they get is disability, if they got more, me stepson would be getting it. So $1100 a month. Almost impossible to live off of. If they choose to live in the shelter, they take part of their check that is the living allowance, I can’t remember but I think it only leaves them with $600. Tough to live off that a month. Now I’d bet some would try to work, but truthfully some can’t. They also allow them to work a certain amount before pairing back the check.
I bet a lot have confidence issues.