Decriminalization has nothing to do with limiting the use of drugs. The main purpose is to bring down costs so that criminal cartels will see their profits erod

Decriminalization has nothing to do with limiting the use of drugs. The main purpose is to bring down costs so that criminal cartels will see their profits eroded through competition. This will also reduce other crimes, especially violent ones, because less people will need for example to rob a shop to buy drugs. Of course more easy drugs around mean that initially more people will use them, however that is just the immediate result of having at hand something that once was harder to find. Give it time. We all know that whoever is on drugs won't stop searching for them, no matter the cost, and no matter if that cost is on someone else's life; the choice is between prohibiting something that can't be prohibited effectively, or destroying profits for criminals, which can be very effective. And then there's the stance by some politicians furiously in favor of prohibition, which smells of conflict of interests to say the least, but that's another story.