NO, I’m a realist...there will be USERS....but, our culture has degraded to such an extent that we almost CELEBRATE them these days. Oh, and by the way, Pharma drugs have underground markets, also.
Well, as long as there are drug consumers, there will be producers and distributors. It’s simple economics; supply and demand. The supply does not produce the demand, but rather the demand fuels production of the supply. Eliminating the supply of the drug simply increases the value, making it more profitable to find a new way to meet demand.
Now, if we decrease the number of consumers, that is probably about the best we can hope to achieve. You’re right that our culture celebrates them, but that is a battle that needs to be fought in the cultural arena. Enforcing drug laws more harshly just ends up glorifying the outlaws as some kind of modern day Robin Hoods standing up against “the Man”, because a large segment of the public can sympathize with the few that get caught in the net and punished.
Reagan had a much better idea, to appeal directly to the public and try to convince them, as thinking adults, to choose not to do drugs. There’s no reason we can’t tell people not to do drugs and still legalize them to castrate the criminals and cartels. We do the exact same thing with our PR campaigns against legal tobacco and alcohol, and they have been proven to be fairly effective.
As for the prescription drugs, of course there is a black market, but that exists for the same reason that there is a black market on other drugs: excessive government regulation. There is never any other reason for a black market on anything.