It's weird as fuck to me that legalization is even considered because one of the (or just the?) largest negative effects of people doing illegal drugs is the ad

It's weird as fuck to me that legalization is even considered because one of the (or just the?) largest negative effects of people doing illegal drugs is the added legal consequences on them and our inability to help them because they are considered criminals. Allowing businesses to legally sell, develop, and advertise addictive psychoactive substances seems dangerous to me. History has shown that if they come up with a new compound that is 20% more addictive but 15% more dangereous, you can bet that this will be their next best seller. On top of that, we should welcome their "innovation" for tax dollars and give them a legal shelter ? We already have seen what it leads to with opioids, even when we gate it behind doctors prescriptions: a usage crisis. We need more control, not less. And we need a legal framework that does allow us to help users instead of putting them to prison, that does not pack the courts with addicts, and that allows the police to focus on more pressing issues. That is what decriminalization is about. Extreme repression is as bad as extreme indulgence, there is a middle ground.