I think it is pretty clear that treating a medical problem like a criminal one is close to the worst possible choice. And it isn't like there aren't other mode

I think it is pretty clear that treating a medical problem like a criminal one is close to the worst possible choice. And it isn't like there aren't other models we can learn from. Portugal springs to mind. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-h... There's a lot of interesting detail to be learned from studying their system, but the tl;dr is that after decriminalization, deaths in Portugal due to overdose plummeted.