Treating drug use as a medical problem in need of treatment is not necessarily an improvement over treating it as a crime. When we treat it as a crime there are

Treating drug use as a medical problem in need of treatment is not necessarily an improvement over treating it as a crime. When we treat it as a crime there are sentencing guidelines. Yes, the guidelines we have now, at least in the US, are draconian, but we could have less draconian guidelines without medicalization. When we medicalize drug use, the guidelines disappear. People who are involuntarily committed to mental institutions arent prescribed dates for release, they can remain institutionalized for life. If we go down the path of medicalization, we might see some drug users forced into rehab, and then into the equivalent of parole where they return to society but are administered mandatory drug tests periodically. And then back into rehab, cycling forever. I don't want to be too alarmist. Portugal's been doing this for a while, and I haven't heard of anything like this happening. But drugs like heroin and cannabis were illegal in the United States for decades before the war on drugs started. All it takes to get from current Portugal to my hypothetical scenario is for the political stars to align and suddenly we're calling for a revamp of the drug rehabilitation institutions to have a lower relapse rate, and now we're on the road to life sentences for heroin users. And it's harder to convince people that it's wrong because now we're helping them, not punishing.