Quote:
Originally Posted by classicman
Is giving when you know they are addicts actually helping or is it just enabling and prolonging the problem until they are "cured of their addiction" as you put it?
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The reality of the situation, classic, is that they will get their drug come what may. My giving, or not....other passers by giving, or not will have no discernable effect on their addiction. Addicts don't give up drugs because they can't afford them. They simply find other, even less socially desirable ways of funding the habit. A full blown addiction outweighs
everything else. And sometimes ... judge me if you will for this ... alcohol keeps you warmer in the night than a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. And if you have spiralled into a life wrapped in heroin and the rituals that go with it, the daily mission to achieve the next £10 or £20 wrap
is your life. The earlier in the evening you can get hold of that solace, that absolute necessity if you are to get through the night without awful, rending, gut churning pain and distress, then the earlier you can begin finding somewhere to sleep and building up a bit of body heat in whatever space you find.
And y'never know. They may already have enough for that wrap, and yours might be the quid that buys them a meat pie or a cup of tea; a packet of fags, a toilet roll, tampons, the occasional call home to mum.