Sadly the media and politicians have thoroughly indoctrinated people into thinking drugs=bad.
The truth is this a war on native medicines, sponsored by corrupt government and big pharma.

The truth is the war on drugs has made the situation worse.
The crackdown on opium/heroin gave us fentanyl 80 times more potent than heroin.
The crackdown on cocaine brought us the meth epidemic.

Cannabis prohibition has tragically impacted mostly minority communities.

Sadly it is still politically expedient to be tough on drugs, completely ignoring aspects of personal liberty and individual freedom.

Some honest education about addiction and dangers of misuse are missing.

Ending federal government cannabis prohibition would be an excellent first step. It's happening slowly. But sadly in places like California the government wants too much control and a black market still thrives.
Essentially government is the problem.
With individual liberty and personal freedom comes responsibility. People are far too eager to hand that responsibility to government.

The other aspect is any government controls over native medicine is flat out immoral and contrary to nature.

You are quite right there is no quick fix, except the reduction of government controls.

Once the corporate controlled media quit their anti native medicine propaganda. It will take some doing to reeducated people about native medicines.