Just like with alcohol prohibition of the early 20th century, we now know that prohibition of opioids is increasing, not decreasing, the harm of opioids on people and on our society.
We are not the first nation to experience an opioid epidemic. Portugal in the 1990s had a huge one. After trying many prohibitionist policies that failed to curb the problem, they decided to decriminalize the possession and use of the drug, enabling people to access it through medical professionals who are also trained in addiction treatment. This enabled them to cut opioid addiction by 75% and reduced the amount of people who contracted HIV from injecting drugs by 90%.
This change in policy has literally saved over a million lives in Portugal over the last 20 years.
If you care about this issue; if you, your friends and/or loved ones have been affected by it, please do the research, look at the Portuguese model and become part of the public health-based solution.