I don't think that the article author wants to legalize drugs. If all sorts of drugs were available in the local liquor store under the same conditions as buying alcohol, he would be running around screaming about "our young men being destroyed by the easy availability of heroin and cocaine!"
No, what he wants is for the drug dealers to be able to continue their occupations, just with police no longer hassling them for it.
“If all sorts of drugs were available in the local liquor store under the same conditions as buying alcohol,” there would be more armed robberies of liquor stores.
Maybe they could just quit committing felonies? Nah, too simplistic.