He waged war like a war. I don't personally recommend waging wars on chemical compounds or the desperate predestined "losers" of the economy, but there's something to be said for winning a war with cruelty vs losing the war with half the cruelty.
"It was the communist revolution that erased opium from mainland China. Mao Zedong , with his political apparatus that reached into every hamlet and home, was able to lay the beast low. He used a mixture of carrot and stick. Addicts were not condemned, but offered medical help and rehabilitation. But those who were unco-operative were sent to labour camps or imprisoned. Dealers were summarily executed, often without trial." [0]
"Smart" people getting hooked on drugs is exactly as tragic as "losers" like Jack, any competition which ignores this is one we should be enormously proud to lose.
[0] https://www.scmp.com/article/547678/maos-drug-lesson-world
I've seen a lot of smart people fall to drugs. Sure, if they get in too deep too early, they won't have a degree when they die, but they could have had one.
And yes, as an HR person in a comparatively small company, this person is easily replaceable. On a country scale, however, you can't simply replace him - you need the numbers of highly educated smart people and you can't simply "hire" them back from another country. Look at the stereotype of the asian genius - disregarding the other factors, China simply has 3-5 times [0] the population, so they will statistically have 5 times the geniuses to start with. You can't compete when your best bets have a 5% chance to whither away due to drugs.
> If you want to know what kinds of sacrifices are required to win a war on opiates, Mao is the "best" recent example.
How so? I don't know what specifically you're pointing to, but given that other countries handle the situation better with less "sacrifices", I don't think they're necessary.
[0] Depending on US or EU perspective.