Drug abuse is a symptom of our society's dysfunction, not a cause

http://www.inmalafide.com/blog/2011/05/09/the-true-nature-of-drug-abuse/

The second is that drug abuse is a symptom of our society’s dysfunction, not a cause. While there will always be a minority of addicts in any population, widespread substance abuse is due to the fact that reality for most people is so awful that they’d rather construct their own artificial realities with the aid of illicit substances. Spare me the lectures about how our quality of life is higher than our parents’ generation – the truth is that most people are aimless, lost and unsatisfied with their lives. For a populace with no purpose for living, no hope for having good friends or a meaningful job or a significant other to love, any reality is better than the one they’re condemned to. Basically, those who become addicted to alcohol, or marijuana, or heroin are addicted for the same reasons that people get addicted to Facebook, or World of Warcraft, or playing Angry Birds on their iPhones – reality avoidance.