I don't believe you could ever have anything to take the place of drugs. Just as some users like downers, and others like uppers, some people like narcotics rather than alcohol, and some people like altered (intoxicated) minds/feelings over sobriety.

I don't believe anything being changed would ever change the fact that some people like drugs. America is the number one drug using country in the world, and we're supposed to have the ultimate freedoms and happiness, even the idea of freedom and happiness is not an effective deterrent from drug use.

I think the only way you could ever stop drug use/ exchange it with something else, is to never have the availability of them. If a bottle of Rum is in the room with 100 people who have never seen or heard of alcohol, I would bet my life that by the end of 2 days the bottle would have been drank from, or gone. The reason I used drugs when I was younger was because they were accessible, I knew there was a punishment (both legal and parental) if I were to be caught, but I still partook in drug use.

(I don't know if that's a coherent thought, I'm high)