The drug war has failed. Legalize all drugs and tax them. Spend the tax money on rehab, schools, and public universities. We are just propping up drug lords in Latin America to feed our insatiable demand for drugs.
How does legalizing fix or reduce addictions? I understand it makes acquisition less taboo, and perhaps makes treatment a less taboo subject too, but it's not like legalization is a pancea for addiction. Booze is legal and we still have a massive alcoholism problem.
True! The alcoholism is, like the drug use, a way to emotionally resolve a problem that feels otherwise unsolvable. But to know this openly, and then to try to find solutions, is the only way out. To stigmatize and punish turning to this desperate measure only increases the desperation and does nothing to address the underlying problem. If each person is both an individual but also a representative sample of some portion of the population, it is imperative to address their issues with open-minded efforts at problem solving so that when the circumstance arises in another person we are more prepared to help them find another way out.