My point was that I know these men personally. They have no reason to lie to *me* in our conversations, and they do not know each other. Yet their stories are remarkable in their similarity. I dare say *any* cop would have a similar story to tell. The ones I know would say that drugs are involved in almost every aspect of their work, and without the influence of narcotics (incl. alcohol), most of the nasty crap they see every day would not happen.
There are certainly people who ruin their lives on drugs, but people ruin their lives on bunches of other stuff too. And guess what, it's their lives to ruin.
So who picks up the pieces? Who accounts for the broken homes, the bastard children with no supervision, the next generation, who will only be worse than the first? What about the muggings and robberies, the victims of those, and their families? What about flop-houses burning to the ground, taking other buildings with them? It is not as simple as *their* lives alone. The impact of the drug user goes out like ripples in a pond.
One will only increase the welfare state by leaps and bounds by your solution, along with a spiraling crime rate, which is the precise reason opiates and cocaine were outlawed/controlled in most states early on - We've been there, and done that.
That sounds like the gun grabber hysteria that if we 'legalise' citizens carrying guns then we'll have a return to the wild west with shootings every day on every corner.
Neither is true.