[random023987]

While the War on (Americans who use (some)) Drugs is a decades-long tragedy whose human costs dwarf most natural disasters, it's pretty clear the goals of US drug policy aren't to reduce criminal activity, but instead explicitly criminalize what may consider a personal choice.

Given that minimizing criminal activity isn't a concern isn't a goal, what incentive is there to change the policy? Saying that the war on drugs causes more harm than drugs is obvious, but repeatedly pointing that out and expecting policy to change hasn't worked for a long time.

[fjsolwmv]

The opiod crisis challenges the notion that lax drug laws would be an improvement.

In USA, there are 2million people in prison/jail right now, and 2million people with an opiod use disorder.

https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html

[imesh]

It has been working, just not quickly. Weed is legal across the whole west coast.

[TheCoelacanth]

Pseudo-legal. It's still illegal in the whole country, but federal law enforcement is giving a pass in states that have removed state level laws against it.