When you legalize or decriminalize something you normalize it. People will rationalize this move as "oh, it can't be that bad"- which is obviously absolutely not the case. Some of these substances are extremely addictive and extremely harmful.
So if you're not going to spend the money as a society to have the back end support for extremely addictive substances and getting people back on their feet you should not go legalize said substance as, yes, obviously, usage will go up.
Which leads me back to Portugal. They didn't just go decriminalize and legalize. They also added an enforcement angle in addition to adding significant public resources into counseling and addiction treatment and recovery.
All addictive substances are not created equal. Abusing alcohol is not like abusing crystal meth. Again I'm all for considering new strategies but they need to be fully baked and not half measure BS. And I have almost zero confidence in Canadians to fully bake the solution and ensure the answer is holistic and not just legalize / decriminalize and walk away which will almost undoubtedly make the situation far worse.
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