If possessing/using drugs weren't a crime, then people would have less to say "I'm already breaking the law, fuck it"
You'd knock out most organized crime cause you cut their money from them.
If the city was willing to sell at cost (seriously, morphine and oxy isn't expensive to make at all), it would also destroy that economy, and potentially free some back in the hands of the people.
And at the bottom, it also looks to me is poverty and suffering, and people using drugs to buy a short while not thinking about it.
There is a proposal for heroin buyers clubs in British Columbia that has a lot of support: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/heroin-buyer...
Legalization not only cuts down crime (from both drug dealers and drug addicts), it prevents overdose deaths and reduces occurrences of medical emergencies and hospitalizations. The city can also collect taxes on the drugs.
Most notably, drug dealers lost financial incentive to hook new users up on the drug, so no new users anymore.
Your employer is listed in your HN profile. Assuming that you actually work for that company, you should be careful making such comments, even if your intent is completely benign.
When I was a reporter (I'm not anymore) I trawled HN comments for stories. It is not inconceivable that some Gizmodo-esque rag might write "[Redacted] Employee Making Racist Comments on Tech Forum" or whatever.