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submitted 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) by TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I was never heavy into drugs but I smoked weed a fair bit in my 20s, knew a lot of other daily users of weed as well as some harder drugs. I don't think I ever came across a person that randomly decided to do drugs for no reason one day and got hooked. They were all people who had pretty messed up problems in their life that were too complex for them to fix on their own.

So it confuses me when people instantly assume that someone is in a bad situation due to drugs rather than them using drugs to deal with a bad situation. And yes I know drug abuse makes problems worse the vast majority of the time but it's not what I see as the root issue in a lot of cases, the drug use is a symptom/coping mechanism for people that society have let fall through the cracks.

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[-] Zak@lemmy.world 81 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

It's an easy, comforting answer.

"That person's life sucks because they do drugs" doesn't raise any uncomfortable questions, and it makes avoiding a similar situation seem easy. "That person is using drugs because their life sucks" leads us to ask why their life sucks and whether the same thing could happen to us.

[-] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 17 points 11 hours ago

That's a deep answer. Kinda like fundamental attribution error.

[-] Zak@lemmy.world 19 points 11 hours ago

It is exactly fundamental attribution error, with a bit of motivated reasoning.

[-] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 14 points 11 hours ago

I guess a lot of people who haven't gone through some serious shit in their life really do find it difficult to accept how bad some people have it

[-] greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net 8 points 9 hours ago

It takes the "fate" out and puts in a level of control. Well your life is crappy because you do x, I don't do x so I'm safe.

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
205 points (97.7% liked)

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