Since Reagan began the "War on Drugs" back in the 1980s, billions of dollars have been spent on enforcing drug laws and incarcerating offenders. Yet, most high school students can get drugs easier than alcohol. Most major crimes in the U.S. are drug related. Our prisons are over-crowded. Clearly, our government's current approach to drugs simply does not work. You would think that we would have learned something from Prohibition.
I believe it was Einstein who said "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". It's time our government tries something different. Fortunately, it has a successful model that should be considered. In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine and jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. In most respects, it seems to have worked: serious drug use is down significantly, particularly among young people; the burden on the criminal-justice system has eased; the number of people seeking treatment has grown; and the rates of drug-related deaths and cases of infectious diseases have fallen.
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