[Jeff Higgins]

So do we escalate our punishment to the death penalty? Hardly. Those countries are barbaric in their punishments for many other lesser crimes as well.

So do we start prosecuting folks for other self-destructive behaviors that affect their families in a similar fashion? Hardly. People make poor choices that affect their families and loved ones every day. They are family and social problems, not criminal problems. Treatment and guidance are the accepted methods of dealing with most of these poor choices.

Criminalization of drugs other than alcohol has done nothing to solve the problem. It has made criminals out of otherwise good people. Most of the supplemental criminal problems, like the smuggling these folks helped with, the murders motivated by the huge profits, and the like would dry up and go away if we dropped the criminalization. The billions we spend every year going after these kinds of people would be better spent treating the victims; the users and their families. Does anyone seriously think what we are doing now is working?