Also, violence caused by a sociopath's giving a desperate addict $50 in exchange for the addict's shooting one of the sociopath's enemies would still happen.

Also, addicts stealing from their moms would still happen, which is regrettable even if it is not violence.

The syringes thrown away on lawns and playgrounds probably also won't disappear just because the drugs get cheaper.

I wonder how much crime is done by people trying to get another hit of alcohol or cigarettes. They are pretty addictive, but I haven’t heard of this becoming a problem with legal drugs for whatever reason.

Do you not see that you're contradicting yourself?

If drugs were not prohibited, they would not cost so much as to cause "scraping up enough".

How come I can buy 50 liters of isopropanol (99.(9) whatever, dehydrated, better than medical eth) for like 20 euro, but no luck for ethanol. Even while ethanol is that much cheaper to produce?

    > Violence committed by druggies trying to scrape up enough for their next hit would still happen.

Portugal (mostly) decriminalised possession and use of all illegal drugs in 2001. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Portugal) This should be an ideal country for study. Do you know if violence from drug users declined after this change in Portugal?

How much violence do you see from people trying to scrape up enough to get the next drink or cigarette?

It's almost none, because those things don't cost enough to ruin a person's life. Even for most of the serious addicts.