This seems like denial of reality. Morphine abuse was one of the main drivers for regulation in the first place.
> Yet, contrary to politicians’ beliefs, data show that the addiction rate of medically used opioids has been about 1%.
A 1% addiction rate seems staggeringly high if we expect everyone to take pain killers as part of normal procedures.
I think a small percentage of people are very susceptible to addiction. It would be a far better idea to improve methods of identifying and treating this subset, rather than denying beneficial treatments to the whole population.
Plenty of "blue laws" still exist throughout the US: who can sell or distribute alcohol, during which hours, on which days, in which parts of town, using which licenses, etc. Some states have state monopolies on liquor stores to maximally extract taxes, but also maximally control sales. My state still has plenty of Dry Counties and plenty more "Moist" counties (stores can't sell alcohol but restaurants can to diners, except on Sundays, things like that). (This is also fun because my state is largely a net exporter of alcohol and you might be surprised how much whiskey is legally distilled in Dry or Moist counties where you aren't allowed to buy it in a regular store.)
Not to mention that the US had an entire sequence of years specifically named for their laws that massively prohibited alcohol on a national scale.
(Same applies to gambling addiction: there are lots of gambling laws in public policy. My state only allows a heavily taxed lottery and horse racing. The state next door allows casinos but only if they are ostensibly on bodies of water as if land versus sea makes gambling more addictive. The humor to that increases knowing that at least one aged resort town built a fake lake to bring back its historic casino in the "casinos must be on bodies of water" times.)
Depends on the state. But every state has a drinking age of 21, more than almost every other country.
People gonna use their drugs.