Tell me more

I'm always willing to learn. So tell me why someone would use less and avoid overdosing if the substance is legal, readily available and most likely cheaper?

It boils down to quality control. With street duge there is none. Most street drugs are adulterated, most commonly with Fentanyl. It's an attempt by the seller to give more bang for the buck, but the end user has no way of knowing exactly what drug(s) they are actually using. In a 30 year career as an emergency doc, the overdoses I saw were almost all unintentional. Were drugs of abuse manufactured by reputable pharmaceutical companies(I know an oxymoron), and certifeid by USP, the user could more accurately caibrate their dose, resulting in fewer ODs. Mind you I am not necessariy in favor of leagilzing everything, but it is clear that our current approach is not working.