Churches might serve this purpose, but those are out of fashion now.
There are lots of behaviors that are not illegal and not against religion that we still use social feedback to minimize.
As a child I grew up in a home with a violent alcoholic father.
Should we shutdown licensed alcohol vendors because a few people react badly to alcohol / are irresponsible drinkers?
Obviously not.
The majority of people I've met have not been problem drinkers, nor problem users.
it doesn't have to do this. if people want to kill themselves slowly, they should be allowed to.
Just like the overwhelming majority of alcohol users never have a problem with their alcohol use.
Prohibition seems like the least best alternative. I’m open to being wrong though.
Once you establish a strong connection between what is lawful and what is moral, you open up the ominous gate of any future conflation of moral duty with any reproachable reach of law.
frankly, this argument has no place in a society that considers itself free. it is not for you to tell me what harm i may inflict on my own body, nor to restrict others from helping me do it.
You can argue that our society can't consider itself free, but it's the society we have and the same argument is in play on a number of issues.
not everything on that list is terrible; in fact, it provides a good opportunity to illustrate my point. not wearing a seatbelt makes it likely that you will become a lethal projectile in the event of an accident, so i'm okay with seatbelts being required. as far as food and drugs go, i think people should have access to as much information as possible about the things they are putting in their body, but i don't think they should be prevented from selling raw milk or dangerous drugs. i also think it is fine to prevent children from doing any number of risky things, as they are not mature enough be fully responsible for their actions. my problem is with treating adults like children. unless what you do with your body actually harms others, you should be left to do it in peace. and no, the fact that other people choose to waste resources cleaning up your mistakes does not constitute harming them.
Alcohol is legal, not decriminalized. Alcohol kills and hurts more people than marijuana ever has and ever will. Despite those problems, most sane people do not believe prohibition of alcohol was a good time for humanity.
We can maintain the very correct statements that drugs are bad and that all possible care should be made to remove it's availability and discourage it's use, but treat it as a social problem, not a crime. Let's continue to shut down drug dealers, who grow, import, and spread the crud around, but no longer penalize users. Offer them treatment, help them find better means, rather than throwing them in jail.