[vkou]

> If society is expected to also provide a huge amount of new resources to counteract damage that decriminalization of X enables, then maybe it just shouldn’t decriminalize X in the first place?

Just because drug use is illegal doesn't mean that the damage of drugs is free.

You either spend XYZ millions of dollars (in both direct costs and wasted human potential) and inflict untold human suffering by 'treating' that damage through prisons.

... Or you decriminalize it, and spend QRS millions of dollars by treating it through other means.

Society still pays, the difference is in how and how much it pays.