Handing out clean needles or throwing people in a cell are both minimal-effort non-solutions to the problem of dangerous drug abuse. The thing "we" are wrong ab

Handing out clean needles or throwing people in a cell are both minimal-effort non-solutions to the problem of dangerous drug abuse. The thing "we" are wrong about and continue to be wrong about is assuming there's a way to fix the problem without an effort on the scale of the drug trade itself. Decriminalization and using light disincentives is great if you also work to take away peoples motivations for drug abuse or dealing, but that's just, IMO, a monumental effort that is unlikely to materialize with how fractured civil society is in the US. I see the root of the problem allowing the drug trade to thrive as indifference to the plights of other people, and indifference is a valid stance in a free society. We have to choose to work towards a rising tide that lifts all boats scenario, and we aren't choosing that.