The drug war has failed, and the average cop knows it

The average cop will admit that the drug war is lost, but they don't know what other approach would work. When you talk to cops in a non-threatening way, and seem genuinely curious, a lot of the time they'll open up to you. I work with people in the criminal justice system, and I've met hundreds of cops. A lot of them are warhawks, and they'll argue that we need to crack down more, but the majority of cops think that the drug war is over, and that we lost. <br><br>There are political and social barriers to decriminalization, but it's just as much a lack of knowledge. If you end prohibition, what's the next step? Do you just let anyone sell anything they want? Should the government regulate drugs? How would that even work? The majority of people from law enforcement or other public organizations have never used psychadelic drugs, or even smoked weed. <br><br>I think it's useful to imagine what you would do if you were given absolute power to fix the drug crisis, and you didn't have to worry about getting re-elected. It would be a good idea to send everyone in jail for a non-violent drug offense to rehab instead of jail, and give them a grant to buy a car or something to help them get back on their feet. Prohibition doesn't work, so what are we even accomplishing by keeping those people locked up? <br><br>The next step would be a nationwide drug education program. We already do this with alcohol, to some extent. Kids learn about drunk driving, and they see PSAs all the time about the dangers of alcohol. This is something that should also be done for drugs, and it should be based in reality. Kids should learn about the effects of drugs the same way that they learn about the effects of alcohol. Most kids don't learn about this at home, and it doesn't happen in schools, so a lot of kids think that Xanax is essentially the same as benzos, or that all opioids are the same. <br><br>There should also be a regulated black market, similar to alcohol. It doesn't have to be the same for every drug, but there should be some way for people to legally buy drugs without having to go to the black market. This would be impossible to implement right now, because of the differing laws at the state level. But if we could somehow get around that, having legal places to buy drugs, with consistent quality, would cut down on overdoses. <br><br>I've heard the suggestion that people could be given a prescription for illegal drugs, similar to how people are prescribed methadone or suboxone. I'm not sure how that would work on a massive scale, but I guess it could be worth a shot. The biggest problem is money. The health care system is already underfunded, and giving everyone who is addicted to drugs a spot in a rehab would be expensive. I think it would be worth it in the long run, but it would be expensive up-front.