Treatment instead of punishment

Ten years ago, Portugal shifted its drug policy away from a punishment-based system to one of drug treatment.  The results have been encouraging, as users of both hard and intravenous drugs have dropped to half of what they were, as Molly McDonough of ABA Journal reports here.  This adds to the mounting evidence that US drug policy is in dire need of redirection in the face of overflowing prisons and a multi-billion dollar drug war being held on our southern border.  Props to Michael Stewart for passing along the link.