Yeah, thank God that we are not surrounded by "countries with less enlightened attitudes".
I have to agree with Saca on this one. You are oversimplifying, optimistic, and expecting too much from fellow humans. Lowering the price and increasing the volume is an unsuccessful strategy for drug control.
Did repealing Prohibition reduce the number of alcoholics or alcohol related crimes? I don't think so. Did it end the reign of organized crime by the bootleggers? Hardly. They just moved on to other endeavors.
I am not dissatisfied with the number of Americans incarcerated. I think there are many more who should be off the streets. While it is expensive and they are non-productive, until they determine a better way to rid society of these people, it seems to be the best alternative. Build more prisons and fill them till everyone who cannot function legally in society is removed from it. Spend the effort trying to keep kids in school and rehabilitate them while they are still malleable. A 40-year old three time loser is not likely to get out and become a model citizen, regardless of what he went in for.
Just my .02, YMMV.
I am sure that AL will be along shortly with his usual well-reasoned argument fully supported by statistics and pie charts. 
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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