Of course, one can easily destroy one's life with those "soft" drugs. Many people have. But simply making those illegal obviously has not helped much, either.
You can have a couple of beers for the first time, and that will give you an idea of what alcohol feels like. You can microdose, and that will give you an idea of what psychedelics are like. But as you scale the amount you take of each, each drink of alcohol will feel like another layer of alcohol, and each increase in dosage of psychedelics is going to feel significantly different than the last. Setting also has more impact on psychedelics than it does on alcohol. Six beers at an office party is going to feel the same as six beers at home. A full dose of psychedelics at an office party is not going to feel the same as a full dose at home.
If legalization were to happen, cultural shamanism would need to exist in some form. In South America ayahuasca doesn't drive those who take it to madness because there are experienced people not only guiding you through the process, but also preparing your diet and expectations before hand. In the late 60s if you were seeking out LSD for the first time, you likely already existed on the side of the cultural fence that advocated for open mindedness and acceptance, and some of your peers would probably already have tried it and would be able to guide you. Illegality today almost forces that same network to exist, as in you need to know people who have done it in order to find it in the first place.
The idea of Joe employee of the month hearing about legalized mushrooms in the news and how they're safer than alcohol, going to a dispensary and buying some with his hard earned USD and then going home to have his ego ripped out of him doesn't sit well with me.
Alcohol is tied, heavily, to crime. As much as 70% for domestic abuse issues, and closer to 30-40% for fatal accidents, assaults, etc. The stats below are from the 90s, but a similar, if slightly lower, correlation is still true in more recent statistics [2]
> "A discussion of the sources of data on alcohol and crime encompasses the National Crime Victimization Survey; the Uniform Crime Reporting Program; the National Incident-Based Reporting Program; surveys of probationers, jail, and prison inmates; censuses of prisons and jails; and the Fatal Accident Reporting System. Regarding the role of alcohol in crime victimization, approximately 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense. Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate reported that alcohol had been a factor. For about 1 in 5 violent victimizations that involved perceived alcohol use by the offender, victims also reported they believed the offender to have been using drugs as well. Approximately half the incidents described by the investigating officer as alcohol-related were between offenders and victims who were intimates. Data show that approximately 7 out of 10 alcohol-involved incidents of violence occurred in a residence. Among the data on drunk-driving arrests and fatal accidents are the number of such arrests. A trend analysis shows that over the last decade rates of intoxication in fatal accidents have declined across every age group. Data on the use of alcohol by convicted offenders show that among the 5.3 million convicted offenders under the jurisdiction of corrections agencies in 1996, nearly 2 million (36 percent) were estimated to have been drinking at the time of the offense. Alcohol use at the time of the offense was commonly found among those convicted of public-order crimes. "[1]
[1] https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=1686...
