This is something I have been thinking about for several weeks now. If there was no customers there would be no drug trade.
My solution, and this goes for alcohol as well. Anything that is physically addictive. First offense, a warning. Second offense, 60 days in the slammer. Third offense, stand them up against a wall and shoot them. After a few months of this, the first offense would take on more meaning.
And as for dealers, all of them. Stand them up along the wall with the users.
Within a year the drug trade would dry up.
Before anyone says I don't know what it is like to be an addict, yes I do. For five years I was an alcoholic, two bottles of Vodka or Gin everyday. Some days as many as three bottles. One day I took a hard look at my self and did not like what I saw. I quite then and there. Yes it was tough, but I did it.
Again when I was in the hospital in Germany, after having my chest opened. I was given prescription drugs. The doses the doctors gave me was high. I was still taking heavy doses when I was released from the hospital, and sent back to duty. They made the pain go away, so I took them. Then one day I was taking them and I realized it was not for the pain any more but for the good feeling I got from them. I went in and told the doctor I was addicted and could not stop on my own. I wanted help, and they gave it to me. Back then they did not have drug treatment facilities, they locked me up on the psychiatric ward. I went through the slow and painful detox process, and interacted with some real fruitcakes. Never want to go through that again. I've since had open heart surgery and several accidents where Percocet and Vicodin have been prescribed. After being released from the hospital, I would cut the doses myself and live with some pain, because I never again want to get hooked. Because of my back, the doctors are always giving me Percocet, but I rarely take one. I hate the feeling I get from it, and it takes two days before I get over the affects of just one tablet of the medication. After the immediate happy feel good affects are over in 12 hours, it then makes my head buzz, I am in a daze, and I feel so tired and depressed for the next 48 hours. That makes me want to take another one just to get over those feelings alone, but I never do, I know the results of giving in. I live with the pain 24/7.