Dealing with drugs and alcohol and their users, has been a problem for humanity for millenia. No society has seemed to find the perfect solutions.
My post above was not about the wisdom of using those agents, but about the apparent inability of users to critically evalute their ability to safely use vehicles and tools while under the influence of an ingested, inhaled, or injected drug, or drugs, and to act responsibly when impaired.
And the resultant risks that flow onto non-users and their families, children and friends.
In the 19th century narcotics and weed were all legally widely available in the US, but society ultimately decided that that situation contributed to a lot of harm to users and non-users, and made those substances illegal, even though most folks in opium dens did not put other citizens at risk of life and limb. Still, society made a decision about risks and benefits, and decided that the risks vastly outweighed the advantages to society.
We tried again the the 1930s with Prohibition with similar poor results.
Today, there are now synthetic drugs that are much more potent, addictive, harmful to the user, more dangerous, more toxic, more damaging to brain and thought, than were dreamed of in the 19th century.
But we, as a society, are certainly far more far insightful than our great grand parents were back then, when vehicles were only horse drawn.
Or not! Time will tell.
I do get the idea that medical treatment MAY be more effective than incarceration and do not disagree with that thesis - but only time will tell if that is really as effective as claimed.
I was in Denver visiting relatives a couple years ago, and the Denver police closed a major 4 lane divided urban roadway, on the west side of Denver, at about 9 pm - police stopped all traffic and spoke to and interviewed each and every driver to verify sobriety - ostensibly.
At the time I I wondered why the traffic stop; but if 1 out of 8 vehicles after dark on weekends is driven by a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs, I may understand what was going on.