> Why not extend it and prescribe alcohol to alcoholics and nicotine to smokers? You can buy alcohol and tobacco legally and relatively inexpensively. Substitu

> Why not extend it and prescribe alcohol to alcoholics and nicotine to smokers? You can buy alcohol and tobacco legally and relatively inexpensively. Substitute prescribing allows addicts access to a safe supply of drugs without creating a free-for-all. Substitute prescribing massively reduces the cost to society of drug addiction, for the reasons mentioned in my comment. If alcohol was illegal, people were being killed by bathtub gin and people were burgling houses to fund their addiction, I'd suggest prescribing alcohol.