Why do we owe this to anyone?
Drug addicts should be helping me, I feel. When I mess up, they should bail me out. That sounds fair.
There is a difference between someone who gets hooked while using illegal drugs recreationally and one who becomes addicted to prescription medicine while recovering from a medical injury, espeically if the firm which produced the drug didn't warn that it could be addictive.
I would make a deal with drug addicts....The government will leave you alone to do your drugs.... but they will not chase you down to put you into rehab.