Not to my knowledge. Of all the heavy drug users I've known in my time, not a single one has made something of their lives. It doesn't matter if you try to help them yourself, or have them seek professional help...they all just sink deeper in the end.
Recreationalusers have better luck, but they're skating on the edge of falling into that first category.
While I have sympathy for the lives heavy drug users lead, I believe responsibility falls on them, 100%. Do I wish them dead? No. But it's not like we aren't fully educated on the harmful effects of drugs.
Ok, disclaimer, i'm not trolling or trying to be a prick, just looking to engage in a meaningful discourse so as to have a more nuanced and thorough understanding of your subjective point of view!
So the consensus is that approximately 2% of the general population is
addicted to a substance. I completely understand that you are referencing your own personal direct experience - after all, isn't that all we really have? But the real question is how many people do you know? How many drug addicts do you know? Typically certain substances are associated with different lifestyles, different levels of risk, and certain kinds of people. The real questions becomes one of lifestyle. Do you really know a lot of people who use heroin, crystal meth, or cocaine? Furthermore, do you know really know that many heroin addicts, methamphetamine addicts, or cocaine addicts? About 45% of addicts relapse which means that more than half overcome their addiction! You must know a lot of shitty people who defy the odds. Your circle of eccentric drug users is a statistical anomaly. I say that as someone who has been using certain substances with certain people for about half my life.
Regarding the claim that everyone's been educated on the harmful effects of drugs: i call fucking bullshit on that, immediately. Most people know nothing about "Drugs". The word "Drugs" in and of itself is the problem because pollutes the well of language and makes it impossible to have a sensible conversation about the range of substances, their effects, levels of risk, potential for addiction, how they are intended for use, etc. Shopper's Drug Mart sells the "good" drugs that help people while the government wages an impossible-to-win war
against drugs. The whole thing is trivial. The result is we have literally generations worth of people who have absolutely zero sophistication about substances. Your teachers, priests, parents, and politicians lied to you. The police lied to you. The television commercials lied to you. We've been fed lies forever. The reality is that people are not educated about substance use and substance abuse.
The problem with all these drug overdoses is that people are overdosing on drugs they don't know they're taking. Fentanyl is basically the LSD of opioids in terms of potency because it is, in fact, active at the microgram level (millionths of a gram for an effective dose). This means that you're overdosing at the milligram level. That's an insanely toxic and dangerous LD50 profile. So why is it being used to cut every illegal white powder? because it's cheap as fuck to buy and even cheaper to manufacture at industrial levels. People are going to cut powdered opioids with fentanyl strictly for profit. It's rare - but documented - that sellers will cut stimulants/amphetamines/phenethylamines with fentanyl because the effects are incongruent and someone might catch on. Therefore people are overdosing on substances they don't even know they're taking.
Most heroin users will know their preferred effective dose and will revel in it. That one time they get impure heroin cut with fentanyl will more than likely lead to a serious overdose if not death. Most people can't get samples tested, don't have access to chemical reagents for testing, and buy their substances from questionable sources.
The only solution is for all drugs to not only become decriminalized but to become legalized. That's the only way people are going to become educated. People will then be able to make informed decisions.
