Politics of drug use

I'm in the Master's Social Work Advanced standing program at Humboldt State University. I'm reading about substance abuse today. I read an article by Melissa Raven.
In her article, The politics of drug use, she talks about drug issues and their complexities and how they are highly political. According to Raven "the two drugs (alcohol and tobacco) that cause the most harm and damage in the world today-are both legal in most countries ..." (Raven, The politics of drug use) Interesting...I was once again reminded how much we are socialized to respond the way we do. How we respond to people has a lot to do with what is accecpted across society. Common beliefs are continuously reinforced regardless of scientific proof or reality. I am reminded to think critically and question much of the time, especially when ideas or beliefs can cause harm. What if heroin was legal? Would we have an entirely different attitude towards people who use heroin? What if drugs were neither judged as good or bad. To quote Raven "Virtually all drugs have both positive and negative effects."