I tend to agree with you, but looking at heroin I see most of the harm comes from it being illegal.
The supply chain funds warlords and criminal gangs. Impurities in the heroin cause abcesses and the need for amputation for injecting users. Restrictions on needles cause spread of blood-borne disease - and this also affect low wage workers who have handle sharps in public bathrooms and so on. People need money to feed their addiction and so they turn to prostitution[1] or acquisitive crime.
Treating heroin as a criminal problem has failed to protect people from themselves, but it also fails to protect wider society.
I do agree that we need to be cautious though. Look at the mess caused by alcohol. (That may be more true in the UK than the US.)
Of course - the war on drugs itself is a failure and the morals and reasoning behind it is suspect at best, if not downright wrong.
And you only have to look at Russia to see what happens when supply completely dwindles to addicts of hard drugs, the krokodil epidemic is truly horrifying.
My point is just that a free for all on all drugs no matter what harm they cause could be disastrous for society as a whole, as you mention there are plenty of people that currently use alcohol to escape their problems that are in difficult places, especially in poorer demographics. Imagine if they could get hold of heroine or methamphetamines on a whim.
It's a fine balance and I personally cannot see a good way to strike one that will keep everybody safe and happy.
There are plenty of drugs which if used responsibly I could see being legal though, marijuana, ecstasy and some hallucinogens to name a few. If taxed the government could stand to make a lot of money from them as well.
The problem is that you're looking for a solution that keeps everyone safe. We need to give up on the idea that we need to protect people from their own decisions. Legalizing heroin will make it safer for the vast majority of users, and completely eliminate the deaths caused by criminal organizations that arise from its criminality.
Yes, legalizing will be dangerous; people will still do heroin, become addicted, and possibly die. But the harm of such use is shifted from a wider group, to a much smaller group largely consisting of users who have made the decision for themselves.
The supply chain funds warlords and criminal gangs. Impurities in the heroin cause abcesses and the need for amputation for injecting users. Restrictions on needles cause spread of blood-borne disease - and this also affect low wage workers who have handle sharps in public bathrooms and so on. People need money to feed their addiction and so they turn to prostitution[1] or acquisitive crime.
Treating heroin as a criminal problem has failed to protect people from themselves, but it also fails to protect wider society.
I do agree that we need to be cautious though. Look at the mess caused by alcohol. (That may be more true in the UK than the US.)