Of course we could sort most of it out in months if we just killed the war on drugs.

Amen to that! It's the most ridiculous concept!

... isolation is one of the big drivers of addiction

I think there's a chicken/egg situation here. What's first? Isolation or the drug problem? I've known some addicts (suppose we all have, eh). They self-isolated, only bothering with others that were reflecting similar behaviours, possibly to make themselves feel more normal about what they were doing. Saying that, it's difficult to maintain loving/caring ties with someone who's just hocked your new phone or Nanna's pearls.