The person becomes an outcast in a world in which the police are the enemy and not the protector, in which everyone who appears to follow the rules of society is fair game, and in which one looks out for number one, no matter what the cost to others. According to Mark Moore of Harvard University, as reported by the National Institute of Justice, Very large proportions of those arrested for street crimes such as robbery, burglary, and larceny are drug users. The addict's need for money to finance his habit and the mechanisms of addiction establish a link between drugs and crime. Insofar as drug use itself is illegal, society has linked drugs to crime directly. Any possession or use is, by definition, criminal conduct.
Petty laws breed great crimes.
A drug user could get that panhandling. He or she might even get a part-time job. If children have the money, they sell to children. Because the drug underworld cannot depend on police protection or take disputes to civil courts, disagreements tend to be handled in an unpleasantly messy, highly criminal fashion. Consensual crimes also encourage real crime by eroding public confidence in law enforcement.