I think there are a lot of different ways to "legalize", and the particulars of how you do it amplifies the results when it comes to hard drugs, especially high

I think there are a lot of different ways to "legalize", and the particulars of how you do it amplifies the results when it comes to hard drugs, especially highly addictive opiates. Putting aside the more libertarian approach to legalization where hard drugs are left to the market and profits are made off of their sale, there are other options. For instance, where drug use is legal, manufacture is illegal, and addicts are able to get free doses while under the supervision of medical staff. The free availability undercuts any potential black market, supervision severely reduces the potential for overdose, and the medical staff is able to have a regular conversation with the patient about options for getting clean. Moreover, by turning drug use into a medical and welfare issue, it's my belief that it will prevent addiction by removing the "romance" of hard drug use for first time users. Marijuana is a totally different story, it's benign enough that market legalization works just fine. But for opiates and amphetamines and the like, you need a very different approach. That said, the opiate epidemic has shown that we have a problem of overprescription that stems from the pharmaceutical industry, and that's something we'd have to address if we were ever to move towards this approach.