[turtledove]

Look, if the answer is starving or selling drugs, I know what most folks are going to do.

There might not be other opportunities available. Until we've eliminated the threat of homelessness and starvation for everyone living here (which we absolutely could do), there will always be people who had no other choice.

[choko]

I would like statistics around how many drug dealers started selling because it was a choice between starvation and drug dealing. In my own anecdotal view, many people get involved in that lifestyle in their early 20s and do it because they enjoy the popularity, drugs, and tax free income. I'm sure there are some that have "no other choice" but I would prefer to see some actual honest figures.

[turtledove]

https://drugpolicy.org/drugsellers

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/3914/1/2875-Understandingdrug...

Some data that suggests many get into it to feed their own addictions (which can be a "no other choice" scenario), meant more are collected by police as "dealers" even though they are just holding drugs for personal use. There's lots of research here, unsurprisingly.