It's like you're suggesting marijuana has no negative downsides at all when millions of people risk their freedom on a routine basis to consume it. Physical/physiological, doesn't make much difference when you're sitting in a cell and your family's financial future is in jeopardy. And I do know some people like that. It is shockingly common.
I don't think drug users in general should be in jail. Even if I think in general people would be better off without them outside of a medical reason.
When you start restricting people's freedom because you think you know what's best for them, and inflict needless suffering in the process, I have a hard time telling you apart from any other prohibitionist.
One of these is not like the other, opioids cause a clinical chemical dependency very quickly (as mentioned by the article, if you 12 hour dose doesn't last the full 12 hours) while the [chemical dependency of marijuana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_use_disorder) is much more subtle.
It's probably the hundreds of thousands of dead people from opiate overdoses vs the 0 dead people from marijuana overdose.
> I would guess a majority of adults in the US have had Vicodin or similar and I don't know anyone personally who ever got addicted.
You almost certainly know someone who has been addicted, you just didn't know. It is shockingly common.