The issue is one of addiction to a substance in this case narcotics. One does not deal with the addiction by feeding the addiction at government expense and with tax dollars. It has led to countless deaths. BC is the current example. The medical establishment is up in arms as well as they bear the brunt of dealing with the carnage of addiction.
Deal with the addiction and provide addicts with the means to come clean with my tax dollars and become productive tax-paying citizens themselves. Don't give them a shovel to continue digging their graves. This is my belief and I know it is possible because someone helped me and did not enable me when I was in similar straights, and I am now a productive, healthy and successful tax-paying citizen.
Prohibition may never work as you say, there will always be a demand, but handing out free candy does not work and only makes misery, and ultimately death, more likely. It leads to additional problems for cities, the citizenry and the country itself. If this is not evident, take a long look around you at what has been accomplished by this disastrous policy, since it has become law.
If it is not the government's job to play "grandma" as you state, why are they handing out government-paid drugs and providing safe spaces for the addict to use? All in the name of harm reduction? Death is not harm reduction, it is final. The government is simply passing the buck and the problem of addiction, in so doing. They already are playing "grandma", goddam the pusher man!