I'm pro paying for them to get whatever housing and healthcare they need via taxes, just like everyone else. It's not like it's that simple though. Giving someone a house and a doctor will not get them off heroin on its own and may not even help them very much at all honestly.

Most heroin addicts can be remarkably close to a normal functioning healthy person if they don't live in precarious conditions without access to a clean supply.

The proportion of heroin addicts who would still be wrecks with healthcare that extends to prescribing what they need is miniscule.

So the first problem is thinking you need to get them off heroin to be able to start dramatically helping.

it's actually highly effective for a majority of people. [1]

Otherwise, what do you propose?

1: https://nlihc.org/resource/new-study-finds-providing-people-...

> Giving someone a house and a doctor will not get them off heroin on its own and may not even help them very much at all honestly.

Giving someone a house and health care will, though.

Every addict I have ever known (I’ve known many) consume drugs in order to escape something. Addressing this while also treating the user will indeed help them. Mental health care + physical health care = “health care” in my opening sentence.

I don’t know what it is about people in the US, but almost all of us completely reject the idea that someone can be held down entirely by their own mind. Large amounts of people are, and those that don’t seem to understand that this is possible are often people whose own mind holds them down, but not so much that they’re homeless.

People in other countries get this. We do not. I don’t understand it.