Much cheaper than a day's supply of food, not just a bit cheaper. Synthetic stimulants and opioids are about as costly to synthesize at scale as those vitamins

Much cheaper than a day's supply of food, not just a bit cheaper. Synthetic stimulants and opioids are about as costly to synthesize at scale as those vitamins or OTC drugs that currently retail for $20 in a big bottle at supermarkets. You probably still can't get cheap cocaine, since it doesn't have a cheap synthesis route yet, but every major class of recreational drugs at least has potent, cheap-to-manufacture synthetic or semi-synthetic members. In the case of weed it's probably not even worth pursuing synthetic analogs to THC given how easy it is to grow. IMO choosing to indulge in some of these drugs, without medical need, may be akin to a slow-motion suicide. But I'm not in favor of outlawing suicide either.