The proper response to this is to treat addiction as a disease or disorder, which is to say medically instead of criminally. Interestingly enough, some psyched

The proper response to this is to treat addiction as a disease or disorder, which is to say medically instead of criminally. Interestingly enough, some psychedelics also show signs of being an effective treatment for addiction.[0] In addition, we know from alcohol prohibition that (besides failing to stop or greatly curtail usage) it tends to incentivize drug producers to push more of the hi-octane stuff because it minimizes their risk: beer was not popular during prohibition while liquor was. If opiates are generally legalized, this evidence shows that the vast majority of people who decide to use them (which is already a tiny minority) will stick with making tea rather than messing with syringes, minimizing the creation of new hardcore addicts. Many benefits come with legalizing all drugs; an exhaustive set of arguments can be found in the book Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari. [0] See James Fadiman's studies performed in the 1960s before it all got shut down. A collection of these can be found in the Psychedelic Explorer's Guide.