My comments and concerns were regarding legally prescribed prescription drugs. Our government has a tendency to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I can just imagine a scenario where the druggies continue to obtain their illegal drugs but people with legitimate unremitting pain are denied legitimate drugs.
No, heroin is not legal. And while opiate and synthetic opiate drugs work, they are also exceedingly addictive.
If you consider that even Rush Limbaugh became addicted to these drugs, addiction is not a sign of moral failure.
However, when you cut an addict off from their drug, in this case, their pharmaceutical drugs, they experience agonizing withdrawal. By this point, often the first time they realize that they are addicted, most people need professional help to get off their drug.
However, professional help will take them off their drug, so they already know how agonizing it is going to be. So many prefer to buy illegal pharma, or even resort to illegal heroin, which is a lot cheaper.
So don’t think of them as a drag on society, but as people who got caught up with something stronger than they were.