Quote:Ending the war on drugs has nothing to do with not prosecuting other criminal behavior, even if they were on drugs when they did the crime. The two have nothing to do with each other.

 

The ultimate question is, is it more cost-effective to deal with drug addicts when they commit other crimes, to fill up our jails with them, or to try to prevent them becoming drug addicts in the first place?   That's the question that has to be answered.   And that's what I was saying in the first place.   If we want to end the war on drugs, we will have to deal with additional drug addicts.   Throw them in jail?   Put them in treatment programs?   Educate our children about the dangers of drugs?   When you remove a barrier to taking drugs- the fact that they are illegal- then you will have additional drug addicts and you will have to deal with them somehow.  

 

What I am trying to say is, ending the war on drugs doesn't just have benefits.   It has costs as well.  

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