I&#x27;ve seen friends destroy their relationships and careers over addiction.<p>I&#x27;ve also seen a burned out house where a dealer set fire to it with the occupant inside to incentivise future debtors to pay up faster.<p>I&#x27;ve seen the grey market involved in buying such things suck far harder on somebody&#x27;s lifeblood than buying alcohol would an alcoholic.<p>So ... my gut feeling is that, overall, legalisation would probably be an improvement. But I think that, if so, it would be an improvement <i>overall</i>, and that doing the math carefully beforehand is a really good idea.<p>Or: I think you and MichaelGG both have valid points, and that any opinion on this subject that doesn&#x27;t include both is probably going to fall short of the mark.<p>(to be clear, I&#x27;m replying to this specific comment largely because of your last line, since I&#x27;m seeking synthesis, not antithesis, by this line of thought)