A recent libertarian paper on the issue of heroin addiction proposes that criminality is more likely to cause heroin addiction than heroin addiction is to cause criminal behaviour.
This flies in the face of the commonly held notion that addicts turn to crime to finance their habits.
Theodore Dalrymple, the author of the article, “Poppycock,” maintains that most heroin addicts, in his experience, were in fact criminals before coming to heroin addiction.
While I am not sure that I agree with Dalrymple, I must admit there there is some method to the logic.
To become addicted to heroin does take time. In many cases it would taked sustained use over months before one could claim addiction. The fact that the effects of heroin would more or less rule out holding down a normal 9 - 5 job due to the heavy side effects would tend to place potential “addicts” outside the realms of a “normal” lifestyle - at least in the traditional sense. Taking those two facts into consideration, there remain relatively few people who would enjoy the required lifestyle to be able to become a heroin addict in the first place, though existing criminals would be one of them.
Perhaps that logic is a little strained.
Nevertheless, the article is worth checking out.
