What Do You Assume to Be True About Substance Abusers?

It took me a long time to come up with a human population to write a research project about. I did not feel comfortable writing about a particular minority, religion, or ethnic group. I decided on a topic that was nonspecific to any of these groups but could include them all. I eventually settled upon substance abusers as a vulnerable human population I would like to research. I chose substance abusers because it is a population that I do not understand. I have never taken any kind of drug in my life nor do I plan on it. I am aware of the reasons why people turn to drugs and become addicted to them. However, I feel that there is no situation in life where drugs can make it any better. They destroy lives of the users and everyone else around them. For the most part, I assume people turn to drugs to get away from or briefly block out something they are dealing with whether they know it or not. I do not believe that there is one person who plans on becoming addicted to drugs. Rather, it happens over a period of time where that blocking out stage becomes less and less and it takes more substances to cover up the pain. I guess this assumption is something that I never really learned, rather just assumed to be true because to me, there is no other explanation to it. I cannot imagine any other reason why people would put themselves in that situation unless that was the case. The most difficult challenge that I think I will face will be trying to put myself in the abusers' shoes. I feel this will be necessary in order to learn more about the situation and see it from an unbiased point of view.