the addicted individuals he came to know through his fieldwork live in abject poverty, but are exposed daily (at a distance) to the great and even unimaginable wealth of other residents. This social disparity is maintained through numerous social practices, such as public policies (e.g. the weakening of social welfare, tax policies that disproportionate burden the poor) that favor urban gentrification and the needs of the wealthy while producing mounting despair among the poor.