From a guy who knows...

Doug Giles, like myself, also knows what it's like to be a thug...and the consequences that face you when you are.

During my time of gleefully following el Diablo’s lead, I shot at people and had guns drawn on me. One summer night back in 1978, my buddies and I were ripping off a boat and were busted red-handed by the home owner who pulled out a pump shotgun, racked a round, but was unable to get off a shot because the direction in which I ran blocked his sight picture and I was able to get away.

If I would have been shot and killed that evening it would have sucked, but would have been a just punishment because my life choices put me in a direct path of destruction.

If I would have died of an overdose or from a crime that I had committed, I would hope to God that no one would stand over my casket and blame other people, or culture, or lack of education, or my neighborhood, or some other people group because that stuff was all on me. I would hope my life would have become a proverb, a veritable deterrent to aberrant behavior.

RTWT.  If this is the path you choose to walk, then the only one responsible for your incarceration, overdose or untimely demise is you.  "Society" didn't fail you--you failed yourself.

(HT CTH)