Now, it's not my problem, but the US with 5% of the world population consumes 85% of the world's drugs. That has a knock-on effect because a lot of it comes from south of the border and fuels the illegal activities there. So what to do? Well, you have prohibition atm. You had the same thing with booze back in the day, and that didn't work either. It criminalised a large part of the population and enabled the mob to grow. Reducing supply without reducing demand just raises prices, and criminalising it just fuels the gangs. So booze was legalised. You need to reduce demand by treating addicts instead of putting them in prison where they will just become even worse, brutalised, and expert in every criminal activity. It costs $40,000 a year to incarcerate someone, and $10,000 a year to treat them. At the same time, you should regulate the drug companies who have caused your own opioid crisis.
I think also that prohibition isn't the solution. Furthermore, it waste police forces and state budget that could be allocated to more important matters, or simply to decrease taxes. Unfortunately, we're living in times were "mastering your own desires" isn't really the trend.
I think the US drug problem mainly stemmed from an economic problem. But now even when employment in these rural communities is coming back, many of these individual people are hooked, their lives in a vicious downward spiral.
The US drug problem began with prohibition in 1914. People have always used drugs of some sort, for various perceived benefits. So, the problem is not that people use drugs, for they have always done that, for perceived personal benefits. The problem began with Harrison and its prohibition. Another problem began with the introduction and promotion of opioids.
Prohibition has been tried numerous times, and numerous times it has failed miserably. Perhaps it is finally time for the society of the united states to experience the full, overwhelming weight and cost of their desire to see illicit substances made legal for recreational use, and comprehend just what they are asking for. As those indulging in such substances die off in large numbers through overdosing, and left to decay where others must walk through their daily lives, the significance of their decisions will be made quite clear to them. No one will be able to claim ignorance, and that they had no idea of just how dangerous the use of such substances was. Eventually there will be no one left to become addicted or die of overdoses, and the matter will solve itself. That is ultimately what is desired, is it not? If individuals wish to knowingly engage in reckless and criminal behavior, they will suffer the consequences of their actions one way or another. They are obviously being done no favors by their government fighting so hard to keep them alive through prohibitions and regulations, so perhaps it is time for a change of pace, and the consequences of their decisions made as plain as day. When children have to see their parents, siblings, and friends laying dead in the streets and on sidewalks as their bodies decompose while others have to walk over them, they will understand the true societal cost of the use of illicit substances. They will no longer question what is wrong with the recreational use of illicit substances, as they will understand why such narcotics were prohibited in the first place. If the public does not wish to accept that there are certain substances that should not be used, then allowing them to experience the folly of their decisions is the most logical course of action. The more the matter is resisted and fought, the more they are glamorized and desired by the public. It would be the most logical course of action to engage in, seeing as how everything else has failed.