I’d like to add my 2¢.
First, I am a recovered alcoholic and drug abuser, so my thoughts on this topic relate more to personal experience than any formal study.
I believe most drugs should be made legal. I don’t think decriminalization is really an answer.
Legalization does not mean making drugs available willy-nilly. It means regulation, like we have with alcohol, or maybe even more stringent.
When I was on my way to becoming a full-blown alcoholic, in high school, alcohol was pretty difficult for me to come by. There were decrepit liquor stores in some of the seedier areas of town that would sell me beer out of the back door, at exorbitant prices. I could steal out of my parent’s liquor cabinet. I had a friend with a phony ID. I tried making wine once out of grape juice with regular baker’s yeast (that’s actually a funny story).
But meanwhile, I could get a hold of, and used, pot, meth, acid, psilocybin, DMT, MDA, and even opium, as well as others I can’t think of now. Why? Because unlike alcohol, they were easy for me to get, completely unregulated.