Thank you for making my argument for me. The article is about the INCREASE in drug deaths during the "War on Drugs".
War on Murder = Lower murder rates = Success
War on Drugs = INCREASE in drug overdoses = Failure.
I am not making your case. I'm pointing out your argument is based on a flawed assumption; That success must be defined by the elimination or constant reduction of the crime.
That is a nonsensical and unrealistic claim, and it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the nature of crime, or even the nature of humans.
We *ALWAYS* have a section of the populace which will insist on committing crimes. The numbers go up, the numbers go down, but the percentages stay roughly the same.
Setting as a goal the elimination or constant reduction of crime is just unrealistic, but what is by far worse is arguing that a momentary bump in statistics proves a very successful methodology has failed.
Again, Murder goes up and murder goes down, but it will never go away all together. Your argument is tantamount to legalizing murder because the rate goes up occasionally.
Nonsense.