> While I agree wrt marijuana, everyone would be an opiate addict if poppy wasn't regulated - it's just that good.

That doesn't match my experience at all.

It didn't used to be regulated. How do you explain the fact that not everyone used to be an opiate addict?

We'd probably be better off if people were grinding and smoking poppy seeds. Even Heroin.

We as a society somehow keep making the whole opiate addiction thing worse with increasingly stronger versions. I've read that Heroin overall was a much more enjoyable drug, and harder to OD on. Then Opioids became big, the sackler family got rich, and now you just have a super cheap, super strong drug that isn't even enjoyable. Fentanyl just knocks you out and makes overdosing easier.

I do wonder what a safety minded policy around opioids could look like, as they're not exactly a new problem in the scheme of human history.

This smells like psychological projection.

History disagrees

if opium was treated like every other plant we wouldn't have the fentanyl crisis. opium has been used for millennia.