How do we know he is a "honorable, hardworking guy"? He has a rap sheet for putting other lives in danger on more than one occasion. Not very honorable, if you ask me.
And I would call this view, if it's what is motivating people to give this guy a benefit that others don't get, completely incorrect and hypocritical. Alcohol use is linked to a lot of violent crime--rape, domestic violence, homicide (vehicular and otherwise). The fact that drunks get the benefit of the doubt is both unfortunate and wrong. I grew up around alcoholics. I spent my teens and very early 20s around users of street drugs. I put drunks right up there with cokeheads and tweakers for violence and shady behavior. Give me a junkie over a drunk any day of the week.
I would also suggest that people know a lot more current or former users of street drugs than they even suspect. I knew college professors, high-achieving college students, LEOs, mechanics, IT professionals, cosmetologists, and many other hardworking and educated people who were spending parts of their days shooting heroin or snorting coke and meth.
I just think these excuses for the kid glove treatment are shaky. They may be the motivation, but that speaks more to the biases people have than the actual behavior of drug users (and drinkers ARE drug users). If you would believe it of a heroin user, you should absolutely believe it of a drinker, as well. And I say all of this as someone who has no problem with people invoking their rights or refusing to talk to the police. I just have a major problem with the kind of biases your post refers to.
I completely agree. The only people I know who get away with this behavior have influence or skate by on other social privilege.