Changing the Approach to Drugs

 That depends on the individual, really. Ultimately it's a matter of recognizing and acknowledging the underlying issues that lead to addiction in the first place.

It took me 8 years of active addiction to realize this on my own. Once that became obvious, I simply gave up using and shifted my focus to self-improvement. Drugs are filling a niche, or a lack, which can be satisfied by recognizing what is lacking and doing the necessary work to get rid of the lack.

But unfortunately most addicts haven't reached this point of awareness, which isn't surprising because most PEOPLE haven't reached this point of awareness. Swaths of people live and die without taking the time to self-reflect and acknowledge their childhood wounds, the traumas they carry, and the way that they continue to affect their behaviour. This is common among people from all walks of life. Only drug addicts are demonized for it.

People who aren't ready to consider this sort of thing will reject the suggestion regardless of whether or not they're using drugs. It doesn't matter if it's a drug addict using heroin to cover up anxiety or a narcissist gaslighting their partner to cover up an emotionally negligent relationship with their mother. If someone doesn't want to look at their own flaws and learn to overcome them then they won't.

That said, just as there are people willing to accept their wounds and heal them, there are a great deal of addicts interested in seeking treatment. Unfortunately, treatment is often expensive, waiting lists are long, and many people don't know how to move forward.

To be totally honest I would say the issue can only really be overcome by thinking forward to the next generation and implementing preventative measures. 

Those who are on the streets using drugs are already there, and no matter how much 'good simaritans' try to shovel mental health advice down their throats, they aren't going to just change face because somebody else thinks they should. Generally, if people are going to change, they do so when they hit rock bottom and they run out of people/things/situations to blame for their problems. 

In regard to preventative measures, this could start in school. For example, during high school, we are taught that "DRUGS ARE BAD." This one-sided and biased approach is actually what encouraged me to use drugs in the first place because I felt like I was being lied to and that I needed to understand why. Henceforth I began doing my own research on drugs, concluded that everything school taught me was propaganda, and began using them myself.

However I believe that if people were educated in a way that taught them that "drugs are an unhealthy coping mechanism that indicates an unaddressed issue, such as anxiety, trauma, depression, low self-esteem, etc. and that if you are considering using drugs, it may be worthwhile to consider what you are hoping to gain from the experience and what other options could provide similar benefits."

I understand that not everybody goes to public school. A significant number of homeless drug addicts never did. However, if the generally social/mental paradigm of drugs could be shifted from "drugs are stupid and bad" to "drug use is a sign of a faulty mental health system that fails to address the challenges faced by members of our society," then there would absolutely be a huge reduction in the number of drug users.

As for the CURRENT situation, I don't really think there is a way out other than preventing it from getting worse with proper education. There's no magic pill we can throw everyone on the streets that is going to make them change their minds overnight. The people with drug problems need to work through them on their own. Suggesting that some new policy or program will turn around the drug problem is like suggesting that some new program could be imposed at fast food restaurants to prevent people from overeating. The resources are available, it's just a matter of whether or not people choose to use them. And, as far as I believe, a person's education is what helps them decide whether or not those resources are even worth using. 

We need to look to the future to prevent the situation from perpetuating itself. 

Nobody who is addicted to drugs wants to remain addicted to drugs. It fucking sucks. This is one thing that every addict I've spent time with agrees on. People start off self-medicating (whether or not they're aware of it) but by the time they're addicted, the problems that they were medicating have returned full-force and, on top of that, they're fighting a daily battle against violent withdrawal symptoms and overwhelming (albeit often repressed) shame over their lack of control. However, very few of them have the resources, knowledge, or ability to seek treatment. 

The high cost of addiction, the lack of job opportunities for addicts, and the scorn and judgment that they face is what contributes to thievery and break-ins. Opiate maintenance therapy may eliminate the crime factor, but it's still a problem, often causing a more serious addiction than people face on the streets.

As for the mental health issue, like I said, there's not much we can really do for the people who are already living on the streets. They know what they're doing. 

I have lived on the streets for many years and very rarely encounter drug addicts who are mentally unwell that they lack self awareness. For the most part, people who are so ill that they're not self-aware aren't going to be capable of scoring drugs. 

I don't know how people got the idea that drug addicts are all unaware and stupid. Approaching a sect of society associated with violence and unpredictability, building enough trust to convince them that you're not an undercover cop without getting jumped or ostracized, and learning how to fix yourself up with dope takes a fair amount of intelligence. It might 'just' be street smarts, but street smarts are still smarts. Those who don't have to approach the scene are born, adopted, or sucked into it. In all cases, PROPER education that tackles all aspects of drug use and addiction, is one of the only preventatives.

Aside from that, decriminalization of all drugs. The other main issue faced by drug addicts is the illegality of their problem. This alone prevents people from seeking treatment and, in the case of people such as myself who weren't always living on the streets, prevents people from seeking support from friends and peers for fear of judgment. 

When drugs are decriminalized, such as they have been in Portugal, the elements of shame and fear are mostly removed from the equation. 

TL;DR: Rather than treating drug addicts as scum, they need to be treated like what they actually are: human beings, with relatable mental health issues that nearly all of us have dealt with at one point or another (anxiety, trauma, depression, grief), who were not raised in an environment that allowed them to develop healthy coping mechanisms. Drug education needs to focus on this more than anything else. This form of 'positive education,' I feel, would be more effective than the fear-mongering 'negative education' involved in trying to scare kids away from drugs.