Well said! And it should probably be pointed out that not only is treatment less expensive than incarceration, in many cases treatment is neither needed nor helpful.

While it is certainly possible to abuse marijuana, for example, and need treatment for a chronic dependency, most people who smoke marijuana occasionally are not dependent on it and don’t have a problem.

The same can easily be said for other drugs. While cocaine, especially in its crack form, is villainized by the War on Drugs, and cocaine users are often characterized as bad people, the reality is pretty different.

When I worked in the white business world, I knew tons of executives who did lines of coke when they partied. These were successful people who did not have “drug problems.” They ran businesses, owned expensive homes, and raised families.

If cocaine was ruining their lives, we should all be ruined like that, eh?

The people being “ruined” by cocaine are people being destroyed by the War on Drugs. Yes, cocaine is addictive, and can cause severe health problems, but not for most people.

Running around throwing cocaine users in prison is completely counterproductive. Then when you factor in that smokable cocaine brings in prison sentences orders of magnitude higher than the kind you snort in lines, even though the effects of the drug are virtually identical, you start seeing how it’s all just racism.

The whole damn War on Drugs is founded on racism and ruins people’s lives far more than drugs ruin anything.