Tell this to the addicts who live on my sidewalk. Many of them got started on pain killers, and now they're permanently bent over in the fentanyl flop; I'd be astounded if any of them ever get better.

Worik's argument appears to be, if people had an unlimited supply of drugs, things would be better than a limited supply. It sounds a lot like the perspective of someone who has never listened to a recovering addict.

> sounds a lot like the perspective of someone who has never listened to a recovering addict.

Many

I came of age in a culture awash with herion

I have first hand knowledge of the harms done to drug addicts by criminalising them

The definition of harm is context-dependent. I think you mean that opiates and other drugs, addictive or not, when “taken at a safe dose in a health young adult” will not significantly degrade basic body function.”

But opiates taken over a relatively short time can and often do greatly impair CNS neurotransmitter systems and downstream behaviors—-in some cases causing almost irremediable dysfunction. This happens to a sizable subpopulation of humans; more than 10% of physician-prescribed oxycontin users. Genetics and social context modulate vulnerability.

This is definitely not “little harm”.

> opiates taken over a relatively short time can and often do greatly impair CNS neurotransmitter systems

That is untrue

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stewart_Halsted is a counter example

"Throughout his professional life, he was addicted to cocaine and later also to morphine...."

You link for support for your opinion thar all drugs are benign to a Wiki entry if a scientist who died in 1922—-before there was a field of neuroscience?

My rejoinder could be 10,000 peer-reviewed papers in this millennium.

> You link for support for your opinion thar all drugs are benign to a Wiki entry if a scientist who died in 1922

Who pioneered keyhole surgery

> rejoinder could be 10,000 peer-reviewed papers in this millennium.

Nonsense.

Long-term opiate use can really mess up your bowels. Matthew Perry nearly died of a perforated colon a couple years before he finally died from other drugs.