There are Utopian fantasies and reality. No government is going to give unfettered access to opioids. Period. It would be beyond reckless. There would be far more deaths under that model than what we're seeing now. 

The framework behind legalized heroin would be even stricter than the current pharmaceutical restrictions. That would lead to a black market like it does now. Yes, legalization would  help the most serious addicts (like they already do now on a smaller scale) but it would be more or less the status quo for the rest of users.