Opioids have been a scourge on every society in which they have proliferated. They have their uses but there is no example in history of a place with legal opioids not having overdoses and dependency issues.
It's also not terribly psychoactive, doesn't make you drive unsafely, and can't permanently ruin your brain or change your personality, unlike that other addictive and legal, but often harmful substance that causes plenty of societal issues: alcohol.
And I say this as someone who really likes wine and would drink it pretty much every day, if it weren't for that whole "can permanently ruin your brain" business.
The new meth is as total disaster that can render a consumer indistinguishable from a schizophrenic for up to a year. Rehab for that duration is prohibitively expensive and you cannot tell me that turning yourself into a virtual schizophrenic is an option we need in our society. I'm all for legal marijuana, mushrooms, LSD, maybe even cocaine. But this shit has gotta go!
Opioids have a long history of causing societal issues. That is my point. Society has a long history, and AFAICT, the social impact is positive (more productivity).
