> We also have the recent opioids crisis. It didn't work out very well. The opioid crisis has been terrible, but it didn't happen as a result of drug laws beco

> We also have the recent opioids crisis. It didn't work out very well. The opioid crisis has been terrible, but it didn't happen as a result of drug laws becoming more lax. If anything, existing laws made the crisis much worse because people who became addicted to prescription opioids had no way to get a fix, so they were forced to purchase illegally off the street. If an American doctor knowingly gave an addict a prescription opioid for relief, they could be arrested as a "dealer". The countries that have had the most success in fighting hard drug use, such as Portugal, did exactly the opposite of the punitive approach people in the U.S. consistently advocate for. Instead, they decriminalized drugs and put the resources from police enforcement and imprisonment into rehabilitation instead. Instead of arresting doctors, safe injection sites allowed for individuals to safely manage their habit while they work toward improving their lives. If the U.S. spent even a fraction of its war on drugs budget on rehabilitation we would have far fewer addicts, not more. I don't think the "if it's legal, there will be more addicts" argument holds any water.