Quote:
Originally Posted by 70Chip
Even the most bleeding heart liberal on the planet will admit that drugs/alcohol are nearly inseperable from the problem of homelessness. Someone mentioned the Vietnam Vets earlier. Even for them the trauma of combat was probably not enough to make them dysfunctional. You add alcohol or opiates, though, and they go downhill very quickly.
And it's not just homelessness. If you were to remove drug and alcohol abuse (and I mean the severe cases, not the borderline ones on their way to being severe, hmmm, hmmm), you could watch all manner of social ills disappear like that proverbial fart in the wind. Joseph Califano who worked for LBJ and is a Democrat is very strong on this issue. If you are interested in some statistics that will knock your socks off, you might search on him.
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Unfortunately, we don't live in a vacuum. Even the most capable, the most intellectual, and the strongest among us have felt life's pressure to the extent it has driven us to behave in unseemly ways. What I'm getting at is removing drugs from our society won't elimate homelessness or any other social ill. Drugs and alchohol probably exacerbate homelessness, no doubt, but I don't think it disappears like a fart in the wind.