> A lot of the problems of the heroin trade could be solved by letting people grow and smoke their own poppies, like they did for thousands of years before prohibition

Yeah no.

Poppy growing used to be endemic in the part of South Asia I'm from and we're still reeling from the impact of opioid abuse along with how it undermined local political institutions.

There's a reason villages are now dealing with it via vigilante justice [0][1]

[0] - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBTcOmQMvee/?igsh=MWcxNGlyY2l...

[1] - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuZCHhcp_dF/?igsh=MXh0dTB6Nnd...