Let me speak for a moment as a person addicted to drugs. I’m not using them now, and I haven’t used them for a long time, but that doesn’t deny the truth of that first sentence.
Drugs alter the neurochemistry of the user. In that sense, addiction is not the “fault” of the user. However, human beings also have free will and moral conscience. You can be aware of the fact that something has changed in your habits, temperament, and proclivities and still exert control over yourself. Having said that, I willingly gave in to drugs for several years. I’m not proud of the fact.
The writer is confused when he mocks a “heroin virus” coming through the air to infect him. It is the idea that heroin is acceptable which will infect him. If not him, then the idea of acceptable heroin use will influence his children or his spouse. (In fact, this is the story of the current drug epidemic, which started with the idea of “opening your mind” to “new perceptions” through the use of drugs. See Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary.)
Most people who use drugs won’t get addicted. A large minority will. If our society wants to accept that - we do with alcohol - then we’ll have to deal with the consequences. Shrugging off legalized drugs as no problem at all, though, is another form of foolishness.
Lucid up to that point. Who the hell says that decriminalizing drugs will be without problems? Answer: someone who is incapable of looking back only 100 years before the naughty opium (and the other naughty vegetables) were criminalized.
It's not if there will be problems, there will be problems. But please stick your head in a newspaper and tell me the status quo is not problematic and I will listen intently.
Reading that book review above was arduous. The reviewer carries so many prejudices he must be hunchback.