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I think you will be surprised at what you will learn and I think it's always good when people finally see how crazy our drug laws and enforcement of them can be in this country.

Legalize?
Seriously, could you give a quick list of suggestions?

Legalize? Seriously, could you give a quick list of suggestions?

Drug use or possession of small amounts should be a misdomeanor, a traffic fine. Not the same as legalization, but far less damaging than the current system. I suspect the government could suck just as much money from citizens with fines as they do now with confiscation.

That is the purpose of drug laws, isn't it? They certainly aren't stopping drug use or protecting non-users.

"I think you will be surprised at what you will learn and I think it's always good when people finally see how crazy our drug laws and enforcement of them can be in this country.

Legalize?
Seriously, could you give a quick list of suggestions?"

I do not advocate legalizing hard drugs. I certainly do not think it would be a good idea if drugs like Oxycontin and hydrocodone were sold over the counter. I think a good start would be to make it such that people won't get felony convictions for low level drug crimes like possessing a personal amount of any drug or doctor shopping for prescription opiates. These felony convictions really screw people's lives up and are uncalled for in most of these crimes. Many states have moved to do away with felony convictions for simple possession and so on and I would like to see that trend continue. You can punish people pretty harshly without leaving them with a felony conviction and the reality is that most of these people aren't going to get much more than a conviction out of these charges anyway, so the laws aren't that much of a deterrent to the young people we are most trying to protect from drugs. Most of them really don't get the significance of having a felony conviction on their record until they get one and it really starts to hurt them in life.

For me, that the main thing I'd like to see. I want us to move away from handing out so many felony convictions. I'd also like to see us expand efforts on things like drug court which appears to me to be a step in the right direction. I want an overall more humane approach. Personally I would opt for legalizing marijuana entirely or at least decriminalizing it. In my state it's still a felony the second time someone gets caught with a joint even if the first time was twenty years ago. To me, that's just insane given that much worse crimes are still just misdemeanors.