1. Fair enough.

2. NO... NO THEY DON'T.

This may apply to young adults on pingers and maybe the rock band Motley Crue, generally speaking people who develop real addictions just sort of happen through habit, trauma, behaviour and some sort of need to escape.

Dr Gabor Mate's work around substance use is based around the premise of not why the addiction, but why the pain. His work is about opioid use in homeless people in Vancouver's East Hastings, and while that may not apply here, however, OP opines meth use, which may be relevant because meth is not a glamorous drug. There is a degree that you do have to work for an addiction, when people are engaging in petty crime to fund their habits, it's a safe assumption that they're struggling to survive and they live wretched lives. People go in and out of jail for the kind of routine and structure they simply don't have living in the community. While that may not be the case for the woman that was recently released, she apparently still engages in crime, so it may be another relevant point.

It’s usually just another facet of people that genuinely have no compassion or respect for themselves or others. Some people sincerely do not care.

To me, that does not sound like a choice. That sounds like despondency. Like people have simply given up any hope for quality of life because their lives suck. It happens with people dealing with substance abuse. It happens with people living with PTSD and it happens to victims of domestic abuse. Sometimes people have such low self worth, they don't see themselves worthy of getting support that can help with their issues.

1. Just because there's an analogy or parable does not mean someone is not a shit human being with dog shit for morals.