No, I'm not conflating anything, I was referring to the suffering of addicts and their families from addiction itself, apart from the second-order crime from ca

No, I'm not conflating anything, I was referring to the suffering of addicts and their families from addiction itself, apart from the second-order crime from cartels and addicts who need to commit petty crime to fund their habit. Now one might argue that that suffering is caused largely by the mere fact of the drugs being illegal, and in fact I made that argument myself usually. That doesn't change the existence of that suffering though, even if it's relatively small compared to the total. And all of that is separate still from the murders drug cartels commit as part of their business operations, I realize that. Apart from all that, there are still harmful effects from their acts. (hence my wording 'in no way responsible' - they are not fully responsible, but are at least contributing, and their contributions to many cases make for a lot of aggregate negative effects).