These days, in places like SF and Seattle, people just freely use their drugs on the street while cops just look on. But it is just one segment of the population that is doing it out in the open (unhoused), and cracking down on them would be considered racist (well, most of them are white, the argument is confusing).
> mainly because poor people need money badly, secondly because people in sufficiently dire poverty stop caring about the social norms of the middle class
As far as crime goes, shoplifting rings, at least in our area, is mostly about drugs. You shoplift a lego set from Target, and get some fent in return from your ring leader. But ya, social norms are completely out the window at that point, and we are just seeing the end of that path.