So, they were half-right since that's tantamount to "corruption in the US"

I don't see corruption, I see supply & demand and "enterprising" people.

The war on drugs has shown that focussing on the supply side has done little to solve the problem. There will be new ways to smuggle or new drugs to catch in the drag net while the demand remains.

The question then is, why is the demand for drugs so high?

>The question then is, why is the demand for drugs so high?

Because they (at least opioids) make people feel great. Better than sex, better than achieving a lifelong goal, better than a lot of things. The second half of the story is after 5 or so years, the effect isn't nearly as strong. After 10 years you don't get the high, you just don't feel like shit. That along with a likely police record, takes people completely out of society.

I remember the crack epidemic in the 80s, and it was pretty much over by the late 1990s. I've heard it's because people saw what crack did to other people and didn't want that to happen to them. That's honest marketing.

Nothing wrong with some honest marketing about what drugs really are. Nothing like DARE, just make some good, honest commercials and play them. Drugs are great to start with, but this is what will happen. You think it won't happen to you, but it probably will.

This doesn't get at why people decide to do drugs. You have to know, talk to, and hear the pains that addicts are running from to understand the drug problem.

They aren't doing it to feel good, they are doing it to escape what they feel all the time.

>They aren't doing it to feel good, they are doing it to escape what they feel all the time.

There's lots of reasons, boredom, a friend talks you into it, a doctor prescribes pain meds, getting drunk at a party and trying it, take a little mental vacation from the stress of life, and as you mentioned, despair. Lots of people with good lives get hooked on them as well.