alt Hacker News> Drug users don't seem to be overly preoccupied with what drug they use.
What? In the case of opiates (which is the most significant drug problem we have at the moment), users are often physically addicted to a specific substance and that addiction was often initiated by legitimate medical usage of that substance. They'll certainly care if you say "hey, you can't use heroin any more, have some weed instead".
The medical pipeline for opiate addiction has been gone for several years now.
Most users were exposed to fentanyl unknowingly through buying other tainted drugs, often expecting percocet or even ecstasy.
Some of these users do require methodone treatment, but you can't give drug users unregulated access to opiates. That is just not gonna work out. Either they are going to self taper ("stretching" their tail of their stash) or they are going to end up in a hospital and get tapered by a professional.