Enabling a large number of people to more easily do slightly illegal things can be viewed as an opening offer in a negotiation. If the scale is large enough that enforcing existing laws is unrealistic, what often happens is that lawmakers and offenders eventually meet somewhere in the middle.
Unlikely in this case. Berlin for example is going in very much the opposite direction, passing new laws to crack down on short-term rentals, freeing up more properties in the city centre for actual residents.
The drug war is also a spectacular failure and has been a main source of civil rights abuses until 9/11 response overtook it in that capacity (not that it doesn't continue to provide a healthy competition still). But yes, expecting that government wakes up to reason anytime soon may be overly optimistic.
