> If I go round giving people the 'choice' of free samples of heroin, with full knowledge that they're highly likely to become addicted and will no longer be able to choose not to parttake, and even with the intention that they do, and then I make bank, that's pure exploitation.

That's not how heroin or addiction or exploitation work.

Many people have received single doses of heroin or its analogs. The vast majority of them are not addicts.

I have multiple junkie friends who decided to stop buying and using opiates.

Ultimately the choice is the user's, and nobody's attitudes or beliefs can change that simple fact. It's actually a GOOD thing that the buck stops there, and not anywhere else.

It's not anyone else's place to decide for someone that their addiction is or is not detrimental to them. I am addicted to caffeine and while many (eg Mormons) might call that a bad thing, I vastly prefer my life addicted to caffeine over my life when I am not.

The world would be a much better place if free heroin were available in unlimited quantity on every streetcorner.