I'd be one of those people that advocates for the legalization of everything. Opioids in general don't all have the same addictive potential or acute danger, a

I'd be one of those people that advocates for the legalization of everything. Opioids in general don't all have the same addictive potential or acute danger, and most of the ones commonly used don't have severe chronic effects (besides addiction) and are generally considered safe to use if used with proper moderation. The problem with this case though is not someone is liable for selling addictive drugs to willing participants. The problem is that someone deliberately marketed a highly addictive substance (more addictive than morphine) as a less addictive alternative to existing opiate drugs. This is not the first time this happened, Bayer marketed Heroin as a less addictive alternative to morphine, and it was widely used on civil war veterans in the US which led to widespread addiction and we still live with the legacy of that today in the form of widespread heroin use. BTW heroin, like oxycontin (the drug being discussed in this thread), is far more addictive than morphine.