> What I'm getting at is that degeneracy leads to many things one of which is drug use, thus reflecting a deeper problem that legalization/decriminalization will not address but only obfuscate.

Ignoring your utterly repellent[0] word choice, you could not be more wrong. Policy changes in Portugal, Switzerland, or Oregon show that decriminalisation, by avoiding the, well, criminalisation of an often symptomatic behaviour, allows addicts to more reliably look for and get help and stability.

Can't really try to find a job or get help from social services when going there might land you in a jail because there was a cop trolling for easy busts and pissing hot will blacklist you anyway.

Criminalising drugs actively dysfunctionalizes addiction, and breaks addicts away from society and support.

[0] and genuinely dangerous

So criminalizing and imprisoning a person for drug addiction increases their chances of being re-integrated into society in a productive fashion? I thought a criminal record made it more difficult to land a job? Can you elaborate?

>... a deeper problem that legalization/decriminalization will not address but only obfuscate.

Not really. The idea is to stop arresting people for it and shift the focus to treating addiction/drug abuse which, to your point, starts addressing some of that "degeneracy", which is a terrible word to describe root causes for drug abuse. You don't get people to be open to treating their abuse issues by calling them "degenerates".