@enigmatico so what?

the opioid epidemic happened under the watch of war on drugs and authoritarian medicine. they gave us 1,000% morphine prescriptions (fentanyl) when people just bought laudinam (1% morphine) on their own. so the only difference between a good drug and a bad drug seems to be how much money pfizer made on it.

there's also a high overlap of the rug of choice and unmedicated underlying conditions (ex. a lot of stimmy users have AD[H]D), as well as a general coping trauma response (ACE scores.)

drug regulation has largely given us overpriced patented bullshit, which can do all the same or worse bad things to you (ex. SSRIs.)

light drug use is harmless. heavy drug use is because people's lives suck and a lack of servicable off-ramps.