You should know that for an addict, the “next fix” is the first “need” that gets met. I am not convinced it is ethical to supply money to a pipeline to drug dealers.

Weed is legal where I live. They don't fund drug dealers. They fund local business.

Though that local business currently funds some sketchy Chinese crime ring so.....

I just don't care. I'm not trying to "save" them, I'm throwing a little expendable resources at a human being and hoping it somehow makes their miserable life a little less miserable and sometimes drugs and alcohol are exactly that.

I've had half a mind to just hand out joints before, but I actually think they DON'T want that.

When I want to help "rescue" homeless people like that, I give money and resources to local institutions that know how to do it.

I really don't think panhandling has ever really fixed a homeless situation. It's not exactly a job you can put on your rental application. What do I care whether the dude who spends every day on the same street corner at 0 degrees smokes some weed or not? Why should literally anyone care? I haven't seen him in a while, so he might just be dead now.

Meanwhile the people who are "temporarily homeless" rarely get to take the good panhandling spots.

I know all too well how close I have come to that exact life, and how much people like you would sneer "Oh he's just an addict, not worth compassion"

Addiction is rarely fixed by homelessness and suffering for starters.

I dont give a shit about a pipeline of drug dealers but I give a shit about humans. They are victims of a state that let them down. Them freezing to death or whatever doesn't show them drug dealers, its simply ignoring a person in need. But doesn't surprise me that people in a tech forum have little to zero empathy or pull some tinfoil hat theory out of their ass just so they can justify not giving anyone anything.