What effect does decriminalization have on the person's perception of themselves?

Harm is often thought of coming only directly from the use of the drug but this isn't always the case. How about the harm that occurs when people think they are doing wrong even when they are not? This occurs a lot in our culture; people feeling guilty even though they shouldn't.

For addicts this is especially bad as they are doing something that everyone finds offensive and that is abusing psychoactive substances. It isn't as bad for alcoholics but for those individuals that use heroin, cocaine, and other illicit substances, it can lead to extreme harm as they are feeling guilty for doing something they can't seem to stop themselves from doing even though they want to but can't and they feel it is their fault. It isn't. It is their brains fault. The person is not to blame in anyway but by prohibiting actions that people do when they are ill is to try to attempt to prohibit the action even though it is beyond the person's capacity of stopping thus making them into a criminal. Society perceives them to be criminals and as such the person begins to view themselves in this manner as well.

What would happen to the perception that individuals have about themselves if all drugs were decriminalized and regulated?

When people have negative self concepts this leads to harm. These people tend to not care about themselves consistently, engage in self-destructive and high-risk behaviours, and they tend to often lack tools to be able to help themselves due to negative upbringings and horrible complex trauma thus keeping them stuck and unable to reduce harm to themselves as well as potentially increasing harm to society.

Reducing harm is the focus, how can decriminalization and regulated market help addicts heal from self loathing, guilt and shame? Could this lead to a reduction in harm even through no change in actual drug use levels occurred?