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Notes -
Absent certain diseases the human body is extremely resilient and adapted to not eating for long periods, to the cold and the elements (across the world), to getting into fights, to unhygienic environments and so on. The homeless addicts live in poor conditions for us, but conditions not particularly worse than those many humans historically lived for 50+ years in. The drugs complicate it, but that’s where Narcan comes in.
These people get certain diseases a lot, though.
I’ll also point out that while humans are resilient, only to a point- and individuals often aren’t. Drug addicts are taking high fatality rates even with life-saving medical care being administered to them regularly. Scurvy is on the uptick, I’m surprised these encampments haven’t already seen typhus outbreaks, and they get lots of STD’s.
Plus, historically normal people had far better nutrition and slept in better shelter than these types do; peasants a thousand years ago had a roof and ate whole grains.
Edit: the response above me points to a 4% annual mortality rate among addicts. This is already quite high, considering most addicts are young.
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