But...
They fail to realise that the "escape from the reality of their shitty existence" is only temporary.

As soon as the high wears off, there's a low - which makes their existence even MORE shitty. And then they have to feed their habit - often (OK, not in ALL cases I know) resorting to crime because the stuff's so expensive, and they don't have any money.

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: if their life was not shit in the first place, they have certainly turned it into diarrhœa by getting involved with drugs.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Thu 1 Apr 2010, 17:44, 1 reply)

True that it's a self fulfilling prophecy,
but it also seems a near-impossible thing to get out of when someone is stuck in it - and often it's something that started when they were young enough not to know better.

Personally, I think junkies generally deserve pity rather than scorn.
( monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 1 Apr 2010, 18:27, closed)

Oh come on...
Are you saying that it's possible to be "too young to know better"?

How old do you think many of these people were when they started taking drugs? Five?

Anyone over the age of 10 surely knows the basic message that "drugs are bad (mmmkay)". Children know the concept of addiction, and the fact that it's better not to be addicted to something, because if you are reliant on a substance then you have less freedom.

If anyone gets into drugs who is truly ignorant of the *possibility* that it will cause them more harm than good, then it's hard to pity them.

The only person I'd pity is a hypothetical person who was physically forced to take drugs to the point that they got addicted through no fault of their own.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Thu 1 Apr 2010, 20:15, closed)

Almost everyone is reckless as a teenager.
Hence, if this recklessness takes the form of drug use, they'll naturally assume that they are not going to become addicted.

Most won't, some do. It's a gamble.
( monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 1 Apr 2010, 20:43, closed)