CDZ Honest Question, does providing help to drug addicts make them worse?

[baileyn45]

There is a documentary series on Netflix called "Herion (e)"...I watched a good part of the first episode and watched an entire system of people and programs dedicated solely for drug addicts. And every single person treated them like they were helpless little children. I watched a judge give extraordinary light sentences to repeat offenders, one guy had overdosed twice in the same week...and several times before - but, like before, he was treated and released and they were actually congratulating him for saying he was going to rehab. (which he previously flunked).
People bringing them free food, and providing shelter...
Honest question...is this helping or supporting their habit??

Pretty much the only times I've seen drug addicts be successful is when it was THEIR choice to quit. Even then it doesn't always work. It's really really hard, ya know.
Drug addicts who have been arrested and are being forced to seek rehab or go to jail, or are about to lose their kids because of neglect, don't usually make it because ultimately it is not their choice. It can, though, and if you have ever had a close friend or relative that you knew well and watched deteriorate due to drug addiction, you would understand why some people will try and try again to support an addict in recovery.
It is physically painful. It is impossible to feel even every day cheer, let alone happiness. There is such a craving for the high that it blocks out everything else in the mind. Day by day, an addict has to battle that and then find a reason to live again. There is usually a great big fucking mess behind them that needs to be cleaned up.
It's not easy.

But why is the problem getting so much worse?
Is it because of the lack of opportunity of gainful employment for so many? Do they give up? It is impossible to ignore that the opium epidemic closely lines up with the level of unemployment in that area.
Again, I don't proclaim to have a solution...but I do honestly question the success of any system that treats them like little children.
One thing you said is dead on...they have to want to get better THEMSELVES. That any other attempts made by anyone else is highly unlikely to work...kind of makes my point.

Many people put a lot of the blame on the medical profession who were handing out heavy duty pain meds at ridiculous rates. I've heard people in Ohio say the single group responsible for addicting people is workers comp. They would supply these people with heavy duty opioids and then just cut them off. Many would turn to street drugs.

Also there is a supply side to this also. As pot has become more legally grown in the US many believe the drug cartels have turned to heroin and meth.