A person is responsible for his or her own actions, period. Drugs and alcohol and moment-to-moment mental state contribute to actions, but the buck has to stop somewhere and that somewhere has to be the actor.
If you want to talk about society’s unfortunate tendency to excuse the actor and blame alcohol or drugs or the devil, then that is a topic that is worth discussing, but that tendency is a clear flaw in society that ought to be addressed. That is not us. It is not for us to take into account whether somebody was drunk or on drugs or having some kind of mental breakdown. We judge people by their actions here.
And if somebody has a problem with drugs or alcohol or mental illness, we separate that part from their actions, because it can be simultaneously true that a person did a bad thing, that the person is an asshole and that the person needs help.
I want to point out also that we are not passing judgment on anyone in any meaningful way. Nothing that we say here will have any effect on anyone who was involved in any of these countless incidents that make the news. If we were the judge or jury or whatever here, then, yes, it would behoove us to consider all of the factors that led to the action so that we could make the best decision for action to rectify the situation and prevent a recurrence. However, we are not the judge and jury and so are not bound by any such responsibility.
