Tolerating use but keeping sale / production illegal means you are creating a billion dollar market that by default can only be serviced by criminal organizations.
Legalize and harm reduction have been the tenets for so so long. No one does it.
What is harm reduction though? The catch with severe addiction is that those suffering actively fight against treatment as a result of the disease. Is there a point of functioning at which we can force an opioid addict into treatment? Or is harm reduction just to let those folks live in oblivion indefinitely?
I'm genuinely asking because I've mostly thought of "harm reduction" as actions to prevent issues like the spread of disease through needles or the lacing of street drugs. Which are important no doubt, and perhaps legalization (w/ heavy regulations) + harm reduction would be better than the current highly flawed system. There are just some drugs that are so destructive to their users that I don't see how they can be sufficiently fought without some force at some step.
Legalize and harm reduction have been the tenets for so so long. No one does it.