Once Upon a Time...

In a land far, far away, lived a people who used heroin every day. They used more and more and influenced their friends and families to use more, never less, always more, more, more.

Until one day, trouble and strife came to the place where the heroin was grown and processed. Suddenly, the people who brought the heroin to the land grew very stingy with their supply. They charged more and more for the heroin until people began to have a hard time getting enough heroin.

This made them very angry and anxious.

Then a young man stood up and said, "But, look, I have this idea. See, we have this substitute that, unlike methadone, actually eliminates the need in brain for heroin. It'll probably cost a lot of money at first, but after a few years, we won't need heroin at all anymore."

But the people said, "NO! It costs too much and takes too long! We'll just change the laws so we can make our own heroin here in our country. Then we can just keep on using as much as we want."

Silly people.

(Now replace heroin with crude oil and gasoline production.)

Thor sez: But what about cat nip?

P.S.
There is a new heroin replacement drug that is better than methadone, because, unlike methadone, it actually enables an addict to be weaned. But methadone clinics are private, for profit companies, so it is in their best interest to keep people on methadone, but that is a tale for another day.