While I do find it unfortunate people are literally killing themselves from unsafe drugs, we all make our own beds - yes addictions abound, but there used to be the concept of resolve / will-power as well (never hear those words too often these days).
We all get the same memo as kids - street drugs are bad, don't do them. Most of us listen, some don't. By all means try to intervene and stop our youth from falling prey to these addictive and life-destroying substances, but if they haven't internalized the lesson by like age 13-15, they're not likely to be salvageable. That is plenty old enough to have a basic understanding of the consequences of bad decision-making.
As for the adults that grew addicted to pain-killers, the solution there is to either not take them, or ask for less-intense pain killing medication (ask for Tylenol instead of T3 + codeine, etc.). Once again people these days are unaccustomed to any kind of physical discomfort - I've had THREE surgeries to repair moderate athletic damage, and each time the doctors gave me a full bottle (50 tablets once, 15 the other time) worth of oxycocet in addition to my IV morphine drip. I never took a single one and left the morphine machine off, mostly because: a) I can tolerate pain, b) I didn't want to risk imbibing something potentially-addictive and/or debilitating - I like to be in full control of my faculties. Pain isn't always a bad thing - it lets you know what your current limits are and where to not push yourself; there are also mental techniques to distract yourself or block it out (which I practice). I still have the pills sitting in my shelf collecting dust.
