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And that's fine. A severe drug dependence is a need, not a bad habit. You can't expect someone to stop a drug they have a physiological dependance on overnight, because you don't want to 'enable' them. Yes, that includes alcohol. Severe alcohol withdrawal can kill someone.
A drug addict chasing a fix without the means becomes a violent threat to society, and themselves. This is not the 'harm reduction' you are claiming.
I'm sorry to inform you, but in a capitalist society, a lack of money is how someone ends up on the street, and it's how they stay on the street. I can agree that in a perfect world there would be better solutions. The fact that people are still homeless in a society only proves that the solutions we have are currently inadequate, and those who slip through the cracks of our systems wont be helped by those systems as they are.
You can choose to help them in this reality they are in, or you can wax philosophical about what their reality should be. That's up to you, of course
Great. Good for you. The whole start of this conversation was simply to point out that offering exclusively food is not always the most useful way to help. I'm emphasizing this point for anyone who comes along to this thread with that viewpoint.
So this is another disengenous oversimplification. You will take the position that a homeless person can sustain a hard drug addiction from panhandling, yet they would not be able to afford a motel room for the night, or an extended stay, and begin their climb back into society. This is purely a moral judgement on your part.
I wont bother trying to convince you, there is plenty of homeless reporting available online that shows these struggles, you've just made up your mind and refuse to look.
I am not responding to all this but I cannot let this slide:
You acknowledge that dependence is a need (which I agree with!) but you think that an addict will magically overcome their addiction when handed the money they could use to sustain the addiction? The justification you're using for handing them money (i.e. relieving withdrawal) is the same reason I don't expect an addict to buy a night at the motel over their drugs. The reasons are biological not moral. You must be operating on another definition of moral or something.
You've twisted what I've said yet again.
You're starting from the assumption that they're an addict, because that is your moral judgement of them. Not mine.