[LinuxBender]

I can see where you are coming from and it makes sense to me. I personally am not a fan of decriminalization as it keeps the control and power of drugs in the hands of the pharmaceutical and medical industries. They can still abuse that power. I personally would prefer to move that power and the potential abuse to the individual at their own legal discretion.

I believe an alternate solution to somewhat mitigate the risks you mention would be an insurance system whether private or public funded that incentivizes good health. Not just good health in the sense of getting off of and staying off of opiates, but also things like sugar, alcohol, starchy processed foods, etc... People that prove they are making progress towards being and staying healthy get lower insurance rates, lower federal income taxes and probably some other realistic benefits. But again, I can see where you are coming from. I have lost people I care about to drugs and alcohol and I empathize for others that have also lost people they care about. It is a vicious cycle that seems to be never ending. I hope that some day we start doing different things to try to break those cycles.