ReThink the American Drug War

 From prohibition to the modern drug war, the government has always sought to wipe out mind altering substances, or at least quell their spread, since the early 1900s. Billions, maybe trillions of dollars have been spent in the last 20 years to stop the flow of drugs into the US, but all we have witnessed is rising revenue, rising usage, and higher amounts of drugs every year throughout the country. From importing cocaine and heroin to small, rural basements turned meth-labs, drugs are finding a home in the United States despite one of our longest lasting, and most expensive and expansive wars. There have been calls for legalization, decriminalization, harsher punishment, lighter punishment, more money, less money and everything in between, but what many people don't realize, is that there is already a model for winning the drug war, and it has nothing to do with stopping them.
In 2001, Portugal enacted the first decriminalization of all drugs in the EU. Many people panicked, saying the already devastating drug problem would escalate, that Portugal would become a "drug tourist haven" and that younger and wider audiences would be seduced by the prevelant drugs of the country. In fact, the opposite has happened. Less use, less experimenting, less crime and less prisoners.
Now, let's get this straight. Drugs are NOT legal there. You still get in trouble for getting caught with them. The difference is that, if you have a small enough amount, like most people carrying drugs, the offense is more like a traffic violation. If you do get caught for having drugs, you don't go to jail, you go to therapy. Basically, they took the stance that they'd be paying for them to stay in prison, so why not instead pay for them to get better? And the results, so far, are very positive. None of the major concerns have come to fruition, in fact the "stand back and help them if they need it" tactic seems to be working better than the "you better not try drugs" tactic of the US.
There is NO guarantee anything like this or similar lax rules of other European nations would work in the US, but most people can agree that the drug war has been a resounding failure. Something isn't working. We have tried our "no tolerance" policy for thirty years to see the exact opposite of what we were hoping. I am not saying legalization is the way to go, it may not be, but the path we are taking now has done nothing but forced creativity from drug importers. We have more drugs and more people using them. It's about time we took a step back, realized our way isn't working, and look deeply at the model set forth by Portugal. It's a radical step, but if we ever hope to really change anything, we need to fundamentally change the way we approach the issue.

read a much more informative article below about the "experimental policy" of Portugal.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html