> I think the drug war has been such a colossal failure (often doing more harm to many of the people it was ostensibly meant to protect) that trying to make comparisons to drugs doesn't make the argument that you want.

I mean, valid point. But many mainstream folk who don't follow this science closely only associate addiction with drugs, hence the comparison.

FWIW, I also oppose the drug war because the only thing it's accomplished reliably is enriching dangerous people, fostering the year over year growth of the authoritarian state, and making the drugs themselves far, far more dangerous than they ever had to be.

> I think sports gambling is clearly less addictive than drugs since underground gambling was never as big an industry as the drug trade, and I think that makes it far easier to deal with like a normal activity with externalities.

I would just park that as being underground gambling is far less required. If you want heroin, you need to go to an underground dealer, there's no "legitimate" source of heroin. If you want to gamble, there are absolutely oodles of sources for that, that are completely legal and above board.

Heroin is just one of many opioids, all of which have similar effects for addicts. There are still legitimate sources of prescription opioids such as Oxycontin, although legitimate healthcare providers are now more selective about prescribing.