> Not getting political here -- but what would you think if organized crime in a neighboring country was murdering 50,000 to 70,000 of your countrymen per year?

I'd blame myself for giving them that market, and then I'd start pushing hard for a drug policy that actually makes sense, as opposed trying to continue a policy of drug prohibition which has spent the last 100+ years [0] completely failing to do anything but give money to criminals whilst having almost no effect on actual drug consumption.

The government's job is to protect its taxpayers. If the taxpayers have a demand for drugs, which is clearly the case with the US, then the government should stop cosplaying a pearl-clutching 19th-century Victorian housewife and start regulating the drug trade properly, the way it does with alcohol and cigarettes.

Will this solve all problems? No. So long there is misery in the world, there will be people trying to escape that misery.

But at least American opiate addicts will have fewer overdoses, and therefore hopefully contribute more to tax revenue.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_Stat...