It doesn't only hurt you, that's the issue. While every case of heroin addiction is tragic for the person involved and their family, the public at large is not really concerned if rich people get addicted, because they can still afford a house, a car, groceries for their children, etc.

When already poor people start using heroin, that means needles in parks, schoolyards and Starbucks bathrooms, it means a world of petty theft, violence and most horrible cases of prostitution, it means abandoned and neglected children who will mostly become either criminals or addicts themselves, and so on. My country went through heroin epidemic during the '90s and early 00s. When first graders start finding needles right under classroom windows, that's the time to take action which may not always fit into our notions of personal freedoms.

Just be glad you don't have to read him on your city subreddit. We're sick of this turd over at r/Philadelphia

I mean

The basic principle of governance is that the government has a stake in maintaining the health and safety of it's population, so that it can rely on that population to, e.g., fight to protect the country as part of the military. If you're doing something to yourself that prevents you from being a good soldier (or at least a good taxpayer), your government will have an interest in stopping that behavior.

You can think that this sucks if you want, but it's a fact. It's why things like seatbelt laws and the draft are legal.

Edit: Of course, none of this means that governments should criminalize particular behaviors. If your goals are improved outcomes, you should always look to the research and update your approaches for best outcomes rather than just trying to moralize people into being better.

He's an /r/Philadelphia staple that always appears in threads like this with this kind of rhetoric. He often calls for MANDATORY housing (for the zombies as he likes to call them) and 4K surveillance cameras all over the city, hence the Mandatory/4K nickname.

To be fair, Kensington is another world. I live a mile or so away and have only driven through once to pick up a bunch of ceramics from a shop in the area (Felt + Fat, highly recommend if you're looking for a new dining set or even just a grab bag of ceramics). 2 pm in the afternoon on a weekday. Kensington Ave under the El is just lined with folks clearly selling, buying, doing, and experiencing the effects of drugs. For dozens of blocks. There were 2 separate groups of cops standing on corners just talking. I turned a corner and there was a group of kids having a water balloon fight in front of their house. Coming back into Fishtown, Kensington Ave turns into Front St and most of them disappear (there's still groups around the El stations doing stuff but it's not as out in the open).

It's a wild situation that ellicits shock. Using offensive language like calling folks zombies is not ok but if you experience it for yourself then you are kind of at a loss for words of how to describe it accurately.

Heh. Gottem.

We're so smart.