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Why does it seem like the majority of people think problems are caused by drugs rather than problems causing people to turn to drugs? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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 78 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

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 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks 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 6 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Out of curiosity, what would you consider an example of circumstances where taking drugs would make someone's life suck less (at least, from their PoV)?

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

People in a wide variety of circumstances report positive experiences with psychedelics.

I think someone in a bad situation they can't improve through their own effort might feel better numbing their experience with drugs. The trouble with that is people aren't always good at judging whether there's anything they can do about their bad situation.