I disagree with that characterization as an overall blanket.
I make special accommodation for various instances which I view as exceptions.
It was not uncommon for men wounded in battle and facing long, arduous surgery and rehab, to become addicted to morphine and other painkillers, or alcohol. They often had no real choice and became addicts out of a degree of necessity, as sometimes similarly happens to the minority of people who become addicted when they are prescribed pain killers for various injuries, surgeries, and other types of chronic debilitating conditions.
It sometimes happens because the addictive drug is far preferable to the pain of the injury, until the drug takes over their lives completely.
Who could blame them?
As for the “opioid epidemic”, when you read the obituaries and look at the pictures, there is largely a common theme. Most are young, recreational drug users who got in over their heads. These aren’t teenagers who had knee surgery due to a soccer injury and got prescribed pain medication that they abused.
Because they may have become addicted recreationally does not mean we cannot feel compassion for them, but it also doesn’t mean we give them a free pass.
An addict is an addict and it does not matter what path they chose to become an addict.
It could be from an injury, it could be by recreation, but in the end they are all the same.