> Maybe for marijuana but the societal effects of legalizing something like heroin wouldn’t be so clear cut. Here's the issue though, it's simply not the case

> Maybe for marijuana but the societal effects of legalizing something like heroin wouldn’t be so clear cut. Here's the issue though, it's simply not the case that the law gives us any control over the situation. The opposite is true: banning individual substances like heroin actually prevents us from having any control over them at all. We made heroin illegal, but the market continued to exist. It simply shifted to a different set of manufacturers, distributers, and retailers. And, it totally removed any control we had over who could buy it, as well as the authenticity, purity, and safety of the product. Worse still, banning it actually incentivized the market to continue and even expand, by artificially increasing the value of the product and significantly increasing the potential profit. The manufacturers have no accountability or regulation whatsoever, they're pumping out fentanyl analogs of varying potency that are almost impossible to even handle safely. That alone is responsible for many, many overdose deaths. The distributors are frequently tied to or directly run by organized crime. The retailers can sell whatever they want to whoever they want, regardless of how dangerous it is, how fraudulent the sale is, or how many people die. Continuing to hope that restricting it just a little more will finally solve the problem is not only unreasonable but making the very things we're concerned about worse.