> We need to change the message from "don't take drugs" to "if you choose to take drugs, take them responsibly".
The phrase for this is “harm reduction” and it has been around for a few decades in the pro-drug communities.
The challenge is that harm reduction material is largely targeted at avoiding overdoses or fatal combinations as you mentioned, which can give users a false sense of confidence about their ability to avoid addiction.
I’ve watched a couple close acquaintances slowly decline over time due to what they thought was responsible drug use. You can do all the right things and still end up addicted to and dependent upon addictive drugs. Fortunately they were both able to afford rehabilitation programs that got them back on track.
I visited one of them in the rehab program. The price tag was high so selection bias was obviously at play, but it was interesting to see that every person there was also an adult professional who thought they were smart enough and self-educated enough about drugs to avoid succumbing to addiction, which was clearly not the case.
I don’t have any answers or solutions to the topic, but I do know that addiction is a risk that most addicts seem to downplay at the start of their experiences. Few people go into drug habits expecting to become dependent.
Perhaps more interesting is the uptick in people addicted to psychedelics, partially driven by the growing perception that they’re not addictive. It seems that these patients aren’t addicted in the traditional sense of becoming dependent, but they get hooked on the escapism aspect or the idea that they’re just one or two trips away from a major epiphany. Not all of the rewiring that takes place in these experiences is necessarily in a healthy direction. It can happen, so people should at least be aware of it.