Mind-reading again? That's not what the article says.
This is an extremely difficult issue. There is no doubt that if the social environment was entirely free of heroin, then there would be, and could be, no heroin use.
But as Diogenes said, we have to live in the real world where “entirely free of” is not possible. As he points out, it’s also unrealistic to say, “since there is some heroin, it means all efforts to control heroin are a failure”. Both sides of the all-or-nothing proposition are utopian and unrealistic.
To me there are two important questions, the first being, how do we deal with the unintended consequences of the drug war — such as the proliferation of SWAT insanity and the criminal seizures of property that is owned by people who have not been convicted of any crime.
The second being a more general, what is to be done?
I would be in favor of severely increasing the penalties for drug sales, as long as those increases went hand in hand with the institution of severe penalties for prosecutorial and police misconduct, beginning with what I believe would be the biggest stick you would ever need: divestment of pension rights.
If you are convicted of misconduct, you lose your job and your pension. Every penny of it.