Some people heavily rely on governments to know what they can do and what not, while others argue that they should be able to make decision about their own health and lifestyle by themselves. In my opinion governments should conduct researches to discover upside and downside, but the final decision should be left to people.
On the one hand, people cannot conduct research and discover by themselves what can cause illness, what are the consequences of abusing some drugs, foods and so on. For instance, without governments advertising some people could not fully understand the issues caused by drugs abuse, which can lead to substance addiction, or the consequences of junk food abuse, which can cause obesity and other serious health problems. Another clear example is related to crime: it is important for people to have laws and punishments, in this way they feel safer and consequently can live more relaxed.
On the other hand, for actions that do not hurt other people, or more in general do not influence their lifestyle, the ultimate decision should lies on people. For instance, after educating a person about drugs consequences, if he wants to take them anyway regardless of the risks, then he should be free to use them. In a similar way after informing people of possible health risks related to unbalanced diet, if they still wants to consume junk food, they should be able to.
Summing up, we live in a country where laws state that people are free to do what they want, with the single condition of not harming others. Based on this, I firmly believe that after educating people on possible risks and consequences, they should free to do what they would like to.