[stevesimmons]

... follow a public-health driven harm minimization strategy, such as the Netherlands.

To give one example, Amsterdam used to have a huge heroin addiction problem, with associated crime and high death rates amongst addicts.

It is now treated as a health rather than a policing problem. Safe injecting rooms, methadone replacement programs, etc. As a result, the average age of heroin addicts in NL is now over 40, because young people aren't being addicted, and 'established' addicts are able to manage their condition for years, rather than die early from overdoses.

For more info on the Dutch approach to drugs of all kinds, this 21-page PDF has good background plus statistical comparisons both over the last 15 years and with other European countries:

http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/4512/T...